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Besanosaurus

Osteichthyes - Besanosauridae

Taxonomy
Besanosaurus was named by Dal Sasso and Pinna (1996). It is not extant.

It was assigned to Merriamosauria by Maisch and Matzke (2000); to Besanosauridae by McGowan and Motani (2003), Maisch (2010); and to Shastasauridae by Motani (1999), Sander (2000), Ji et al. (2016).

Synonymy list
YearName and author
1996Besanosaurus Dal Sasso and Pinna
1999Besanosaurus Motani p. 480
2000Besanosaurus Maisch and Matzke pp. 68, 96
2000Besanosaurus Sander
2003Besanosaurus McGowan and Motani
2010Besanosaurus Maisch
2016Besanosaurus Ji et al. p. 10

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RankNameAuthor
kingdomAnimalia()
—Bilateria
—EubilateriaAx 1987
—Deuterostomia
phylumChordataHaeckel 1874
subphylumVertebrata
superclassGnathostomata
classOsteichthyes
subclassSarcopterygii()
subclassDipnotetrapodomorpha(Nelson 2006)
subclassTetrapodomorpha()
—Tetrapoda
—Reptiliomorpha
—Anthracosauria
subclassAmphibiosauriaKuhn 1967
—Cotylosauria()
RankNameAuthor
—Amniota
—Sauropsida
classReptilia
subclassEureptilia()
—Romeriida
—Diapsida()
—Ichthyosauromorpha
—Ichthyosauriformes
—Ichthyopterygia(Owen 1840)
—Eoichthyosauria
—Ichthyosauria(de Blainville 1835)
—Hueneosauria
—Merriamosauria
familyBesanosauridae
genusBesanosaurusDal Sasso and Pinna 1996

If no rank is listed, the taxon is considered an unranked clade in modern classifications. Ranks may be repeated or presented in the wrong order because authors working on different parts of the classification may disagree about how to rank taxa.

G. †Besanosaurus Dal Sasso and Pinna 1996
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†Besanosaurus leptorhynchus Dal Sasso and Pinna 1996
Diagnosis
ReferenceDiagnosis
R. Motani 1999Teeth small; four digits in limbs; circular manual phalanges and metapodials (after Dal Sasso and Pinna, 1996)
M. W. Maisch and A. T. Matzke 2000"Very large ichthyosaur (entire length exceeds 5 m), teeth isodontous, very small, snout very gracile and slender, very small processus postnarialis of maxilla, ratio skull length-entire length about 1:10, humerus longer than wide, with anterior notch and conspicuous posterior shaft, radius elongate (compared to Mikadocephalus)."
C. Ji et al. 2016Size about 6 m, skull relatively small; teeth small; snout extremely slender; maxilla prefrontal contact present; humerus and ulna round, radius nearly quadrangular, slightly larger than ulna, and contiguous shaft notched or absent; pubis foramen nearly closed.