Eonatator STERNBERGII (WIMAN 1920

• Main Authors: Bardet, Nathalie, Suberbiola, Xabier Pereda, Iarochene, Mohamed, Bouya, Baadi, Amaghzaz, Mbarek
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2005
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Chordata; Reptilia; Squamata; Mosasauridae; Eonatator; Beaver Creek
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/4687263; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4687263

EONATATOR STERNBERGII (WIMAN, 1920) COMB. NOV. Holotype: UPI R 163, a nearly complete skeleton described by Wiman (1920). Type locality and horizon: Smoky Hill Member, Niobrara Chalk, Santonian (Late Cretaceous), Kansas (USA). Referred specimen: USNM 3777, incomplete skeleton, Smoky Hill Member, Niobrara Chalk, Santonian (Late Cretaceous), Beaver Creek, Logan County, Kansas (USA) (Russell, 1967: 126). Emended diagnosis: Ambiguous characters: premaxilla–maxilla lateral suture ending posterior to the 9th maxillary teeth; tail about 40% of the head and trunk length (convergent in mosasaurines); caudal vertebra length greater than width; fewer than four pygal vertebrae; femur length about twice distal width (convergent in Clidastes). Autapomorphies: parietal with smooth triangular table extending very far posteriorly, bearing medium-sized circular foramen, located at distance twice its diameter from the frontal–parietal suture, and surrounded anteriorly and posteriorly by two parallel ridges; rounded quadrate with regularly convex tympanic ala; vertebral formula: seven cervicals, 24 dorsals, four pygals, 28 median caudals and at least 41 terminal caudals; humerus length approximately 2.5¥ distal width. Published as part of Bardet, Nathalie, Suberbiola, Xabier Pereda, Iarochene, Mohamed, Bouya, Baadi & Amaghzaz, Mbarek, 2005, A new species of Halisaurus from the Late Cretaceous phosphates of Morocco, and the phylogenetical relationships of the Halisaurinae (Squamata: Mosasauridae), pp. 447-472 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 143 (3) on page 465, DOI:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2005.00152.x, http://zenodo.org/record/4687311