Tanytrachelos
Extinct genus of reptiles / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tanytrachelos is an extinct genus of tanystropheid archosauromorph reptile from the Late Triassic of the eastern United States.[1] It contains a single species, Tanytrachelos ahynis, which is known from several hundred fossil specimens preserved in the Solite Quarry in Cascade, Virginia. Abundant fossils of Tanytrachelos are found in a series of lakebed sediments that were deposited over the course of about 350 thousand years in a lake which existed approximately 230 million years ago. Some fossils are very well-preserved and include the remains of soft tissues.[2][3] Tanytrachelos is the most likely trackmaker of the ichnogenus Gwyneddichnium.[4]
Tanytrachelos | |
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A specimen of Tanytrachelos | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Clade: | Archosauromorpha |
Clade: | †Tanysauria |
Family: | †Tanystropheidae |
Genus: | †Tanytrachelos Olsen, 1979 |
Type species | |
†Tanytrachelos ahynis Olsen, 1979 | |
Synonyms | |
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Tanytrachelos remains have also been found in the Chinle Formation of Arizona[5] and the Lockatong Formation of New Jersey.[6]