Talk:Brachypterygius

Ichthyosaurus trigonus; Brachypterygius cantabrigiensis
Fischer et. al. (2014) declare Brachypterygius cantabrigiensis a nomen dubium as its holotype is unidentifiable beyond Ophthalmosauridae indet.

By the way, you didn't mention that Ichthyosaurus trigonus Owen 1840 is the type species of Macropterygius (as specified by von Huene, 1923), and that its holotype, ANSP 10124, was rediscovered by Spamer et. al. (1989). The holotype of I. trigonus was mistakenly thought to be lost and vertebrae figured by Phillips (1871) were designated the neotype by Lydekker (1889), (Spamer et. al. 1989). However, the rediscovery of the holotype prompted the ICZN to revoke Lydekker's (1889) neotype designation (Spamer 1991; ICZN 1993). Regardless, Macropterygius (and hence I. trigonus) was declared a nomen dubium by Bardet and Fernandez (2000) as the holotype lacked characters to distinguish it from other ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaurs.

Spamer, E. E. (1991). "Case 2779., Ichthyosaurus trigonus Owen, 1840 (currently Macropterygius trigonus; Reptilia, Ichthyopterygia): Proposed replacement of neotype by rediscovered holotype." Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 48: ., 240-242. Int Comm Zool, N. (1993). "Ichthyosaurus-Trigonus Owen 1840 Currently Macropterygius-Trigonus Reptilia Ichthyopterygia Neotype Replaced by Rediscovered Holotype." Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 50(2): 184-185. Lydekker, R. 1889. Catalogue of the fossil Reptilia and Amphibia in the British Museum (Natural History). Part 2. (Ichthyopterygia and Sauropterygia). 307 pp. British Museum (Natural History), London. Phillips, J. 1871. Geology of Oxford and the Valley of the Thames, xxiv, 523 pp. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

Owen, R. (1840) Report on British fossil reptiles. Report of the 9th Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1839, 8: 43-126.

Spamer, E.E., Bogan, A.E. & Torrens, H.S. 1989. Recovery of the Etheldred Benett collection offossils mostly from Jurassic-Cretaceous strata of Wiltshire, England, analysis of the taxonomic nomenclature of Benett (1831), and notes and figures of type specimens contained in the collection. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 141:115-180. Huene, F. von. 1922. Die Ichthyosaurier des Lias und ihre Zusammenhange. Monographien zur Geologic and Palaeontologie, 1: 1-114. Huene, F. von. 1923. Lines of phyletic and biological development of the Ichthyopterygia. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, 34: 463^68.

Fischer, V.; Bardet, N.; Guiomar, M.; Godefroit, P. (2014). "High Diversity in Cretaceous Ichthyosaurs from Europe Prior to Their Extinction". In Farke, Andrew A. PLoS ONE 9: e84709. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0084709. edit.68.4.28.33 (talk) 01:50, 22 January 2014 (UTC)Vahe Demirjian