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Protostega gigas
Taxonomy
Protostega gigas was named by Cope (1871). It is not a trace fossil. Its type locality is near Butte Creek, which is in a Coniacian/Santonian marine chalk in the Niobrara Formation of Kansas.
Synonyms
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Synonymy list
| Year | Name and author |
|---|---|
| 1871 | Protostega gigas Cope p. 175 |
| 1872 | Protostega gigas Cope |
| 1873 | Protostega gigas Leidy p. 269 |
| 1902 | Protostega gigas Hay p. 440 |
| 1908 | Protostega potens Hay |
| 1908 | Protostega gigas Hay p. 190 |
| 1909 | Protostega gigas Wieland p. 103 |
| 1909 | Protostega potens Wieland p. 103 |
| 1930 | Protostega gigas Hay p. 78 |
| 1930 | Protostega potens Hay p. 78 |
| 1934 | Protostega gigas Swinton p. 75 |
| 1953 | Protostega gigas Zangerl p. 72 |
| 1953 | Protostega potens Zangerl p. 76 |
| 1953 | Protostega dixie Zangerl pp. 94-118 figs. Plate 7, Fig. 30-55 |
| 1981 | Protostega dixie Thurmond and Jones p. 124 |
| 2004 | Protostega gigas Shimada and Hooks III p. 205 |
| 2022 | Protostega gigas Danilov et al. |
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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.
†Protostega gigas Cope 1871
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Invalid names: Protostega dixie Zangerl 1953 [synonym], Protostega potens Hay 1908 [synonym]
Diagnosis
| Reference | Diagnosis | |
|---|---|---|
| I. G. Danilov et al. 2022 | The specimens ZIN PH 1e13/244 share large size (larger than in Pan-Chelonioidea indet. from the same locality) and the following features of the Protostegidae: large jugal with nearly straight ventral border, medial process of the jugal absent, lateral process of the humerus restricted to anterior portion of the shaft, deeply interfingering sutures between dermal bones of the skull and shell elements, and, probably, star-shaped hypoplastron (Zangerl,
1953a; Hirayama, 1997; Hooks, 1998; Evers and Benson, 2019). Absence of the pronounced lingual ridge on the maxilla and shallow groove for free rib on ventral surface of the posterior peripheral suggest attribution to the subtribe Protostegina of Hooks (1998) uniting the genera Archelon Wieland, 1896 and Protostega Cope, 1872. The straight ventral (labial) border of the maxilla, suggesting that the premaxillary beak was only slightly down-curved (unlike Archelon ischyros, which has large downcurved beak), well developed keel on the neural (unlike Archelon ischyros, which has low and even neural keel), and well developed lateral (radial) process of the humerus (unlike Archelon ischyros, in which the radial process of the humerus is reduced to a low ridge) allow assignment of these materials to the genus Protostega (Hooks, 1998). |
Measurements
No measurements are available
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| Source: superf = superfamily, subo = suborder, c = class, subp = subphylum | |||||
| References: Hendy et al. 2009, Carroll 1988, Uetz 2005, Bush and Bambach 2015 | |||||
Age range: base of the Late/Upper Santonian to the top of the Early/Lower Campanian or 85.80000 to 70.60000 Ma
Collections (10 total)
| Time interval | Ma | Country or state | Original ID and collection number |
|---|---|---|---|
| Late/Upper Coniacian - Santonian | USA (Kansas) | Protostega gigas (type locality: 203740) | |
| Santonian | USA (Kansas) | Protostega gigas (93225) | |
| Late/Upper Santonian | USA (Kansas) | Protostega potens (203741) | |
| Late/Upper Santonian - Early/Lower Campanian | USA (Alabama) | Protostega dixie (81927 81930 81931 81932 81933 81934) | |
| Early/Lower Campanian | Russian Federation (Saratov) | Protostega gigas (157353) |