Revision of Saurorhynchus (Actinopterygii: Saurichthyidae) from the Early Jurassic of England and Germany
Author
Maxwell, Erin E.
B2704A50-D2A0-4592-8F8E-DB02E7D99256
Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart, Rosenstein 1, 70191 Stuttgart, Germany. Institut für Geographie und Geologie, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald, Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn Strasse 17 a, 17489 Greifswald, Germany.
erin.maxwell@smns-bw.de
Author
Stumpf, Sebastian
8DADF851-CFA5-469E-9628-AD020803B424
Email: sebastian. stumpf @ stud. uni-greifswald. de & urn: lsid: zoobank. org: author: 8 DADF 851 - CFA 5 - 469 E- 9628 - AD 020803 B 424
sebastian.stumpf@stud.uni-greifswald.de
text
European Journal of Taxonomy
2017
2017-05-23
321
321
1
29
journal article
22100
10.5852/ejt.2017.321
caeead37-b6ce-4f03-96d2-ae8c8beb8573
2118-9773
3829282
490DE895-000D-4995-9FAC-1F50DEB0DD0F
Saurorhynchus
sp.
Material studied
GERMANY
: Numismalismergel jaw (
SMNS
96082).
Remark
SMNS 96082 is the only Pliensbachian record of
Saurorhynchus
of which we are aware. Although clearly referable to
Saurorhynchus
, SMNS 96082 is distinct from
S. anningae
sp. nov.
in the shape of the posterior mandible and position of the mandibular sensory canal, and also from
S. brevirostris
,
in that the posterior edge of the mandible is more strongly sinusoidal. However, there are few features to differentiate SMNS 96082 from the Toarcian-aged
S. acutus
and
S. hauffi
sp. nov.
One notable difference is the development of plicidentine, which is easily visible around all tooth bases in this specimen. In Toarcian saurichthyids, plicidentine, while present at least some of the time, does not appear to be as well-developed or consistently present. However, body size/absolute tooth size may be playing a role: with a mandibular depth of
23 mm
, the Numismalismergel jaw ranks among the largest
Saurorhynchus
skulls from southwestern
Germany
(Suppl. Table 1;
Hauff 1938
). As in the Toarcian material, the collar region of the teeth does not appear to be corrugated.
Comparing the jaw depth to other Toarcian
Saurorhynchus
skulls, a skull length of between
114 mm
(based on PMU 30009) and
143 mm
(
Hauff 1938
) is predicted, which would result in an estimated fork length of
40–50 cm
.