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Brachauchenius

Osteichthyes - Plesiosauria - Pliosauridae

Taxonomy

Brachauchenius was named by Williston (1903) [Sepkoski's age data: K u]. Its type is Brachauchenius lucasi. It is the type genus of Brachaucheniidae.

It was assigned to Polycotylidae by Persson (1963); to Plesiosauria by Welles (1962), Sepkoski (2002); to Brachaucheniidae by Hay (1930), Carpenter (1996), Hampe (2005); to Pliosauridae by Williston (1903), White (1940), Carroll (1988), O'Keefe (2001), Ketchum and Benson (2010), Ketchum and Benson (2011); and to Brachaucheninae by Benson et al. (2013), Benson and Druckenmiller (2014).

Species

B. lucasi (type species)

Synonymy list

Year	Name and author
1903	Brachauchenius Williston p. 57
1930	Brachauchenius Hay p. 119
1940	Brachauchenius White p. 466
1962	Brachauchenius Welles pp. 3, 54
1963	Brachauchenius Persson p. 8
1988	Brachauchenius Carroll
1996	Brachauchenius Carpenter p. 261
2001	Brachauchenius O'Keefe p. 19 fig. 20
2002	Brachauchenius Sepkoski
2005	Brachauchenius Hampe
2010	Brachauchenius Ketchum and Benson p. 15
2011	Brachauchenius Ketchum and Benson p. 126
2013	Brachauchenius Benson et al.
2014	Brachauchenius Benson and Druckenmiller figs. 2-3

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Rank	Name	Author
kingdom	Animalia	()
—	Bilateria
—	Eubilateria	Ax 1987
—	Deuterostomia
phylum	Chordata	Haeckel 1874
subphylum	Vertebrata
superclass	Gnathostomata
class	Osteichthyes
subclass	Sarcopterygii	()
subclass	Dipnotetrapodomorpha	(Nelson 2006)
subclass	Tetrapodomorpha	()
—	Tetrapoda
—	Reptiliomorpha
—	Anthracosauria
subclass	Amphibiosauria	Kuhn 1967

Rank	Name	Author
—	Cotylosauria	()
—	Amniota
—	Sauropsida
class	Reptilia
subclass	Eureptilia	()
—	Romeriida
—	Diapsida	()
suborder	Sauropterygia
order	Plesiosauria	de Blainville 1835
superfamily	Pliosauroidea	Welles 1943
family	Pliosauridae	Seeley 1874
—	Thalassophonea
subfamily	Brachaucheninae	(Williston 1925)
genus	Brachauchenius

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. †Brachauchenius Williston 1903

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†Brachauchenius lucasi Williston 1903

Diagnosis

Reference	Diagnosis
S. W. Williston 1903	"Head large and broad; palatine bones broadly contiguous; a strong pterygoid ridge on either side; a deep interpterygoid fossa; neck very short; cervical ribs singleheaded: cervical ribs and vertebral arches united by persistent suture: no infracentral vascular foramina."