Cteniogenys
Name:
Cteniogenys.
Phonetic: Ten-o-gen-iss.
Named By: Charles W. Gilmore - 1928.
Synonyms: Cteniogenys reedi.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Choristodera, Cteniogenidae.
Species: C. antiquus (type).
Diet: Insectivore.
Size: Individuals range between 25 and 50
centimetres long.
Known locations: Canada - Oldman Formation,
England - Chipping Norton Limestone Formation, Forest Marble
Formation, Portugal - Alcoba�a Formation, Russia -
Moskovoretskaya Formation, Scotland - Kilmaluag Formation, and
the USA including South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming - all Morrison
Formation.
Time period: Bathonian of the Jurassic through to
the Campanian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Several individuals though
often of only partial remains.
Cteniogenys
is a genus of reptile that is commonly found associated with former
deposits of freshwater. This has led to the possible scenario of
Cteniogenys being semi-aquatic and perhaps even
hunting for fish.
It may be however that the remains of these individuals may have
simply been taking a drink near the time of their death, and were
more likely to be preserved by the water and mud where they would be
covered up from scavenging predators.
There
has been speculation that the Canadian fossils of Cteniogenys
may in
fact represent a similar but different species or genus of reptile.
This is because at the time of writing the Canadian specimens of
Cteniogenys are the only ones that are dated to the
Late Cretaceous,
with all of the other fossils of Cteniogenys
from the United States
to Europe being dated to the late Jurassic. This means that this is a
temporal gap of at least sixty-six million years between the Canadian
fossils and those of the rest of the world. Of course this does not
make it impossible that the Canadian remains are those of the genus,
but to further complicate matters, the Canadian specimens of
Cteniogenys are only of partial skulls and jaws
which means that there
is even less material to compare them to.
Further reading
- Fossil lizards of North America. - Memoirs of the National
Academy of Sciences 22(3):1-201 - Charles W. Gilmore -
1928.
- New material of Cteniogenys (Reptilia:
Diapsida) and a
reassessment of the phylogenetic position of the genus - Neues
Jahrbuch f�r Geologie und Pal�ntologie, Monatshefte 1989 (10):
577–589. - Susan E. Evans - 1989.
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