Genus
Valid Extinct

Caypullisaurus

Fernández 1997

Caypullisaurus is an extinct genus of platypterygiine ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaur from the Late Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous of Argentina. Its holotype was collected from the Vaca Muerta Formation of Cerro Lotena, Neuquen, dating to the early Tithonian stage of the Late Jurassic, about 150 million years ago. Caypullisaurus was first named by Marta Fernández in 1997 and the type species is Caypullisaurus bonapartei. It was a large ichthyosaur, measuring about 7 m (23 ft) long. The forelimbs of Caypullisaurus contained 10 digits each.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
2
Group
Ichtyosaures
Carnivore nektonic Marine
Caypullisaurus
click to enlarge
Dakosaurus andinensis on right & Caypullisaurus on left © Creator: Dmitry Bogdanov · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia
PBDB Wikipedia
Classification
Ichthyosauria Unranked clade
Baracromia Unranked clade
Ophthalmosauridae Family
Platypterygiinae Subfamily
Caypullisaurus Genus
Fossil sites 2 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇦🇷 Argentina
2
Geological formations
Vaca Muerta
2
Temporal distribution
Berriasian (143.1–137.05 Ma)
1
Tithonian (149.2–143.1 Ma)
1
Species (1)
Caypullisaurus bonapartei 145 Ma
Images 1
Bibliography
Original description
M. S. Fernández. 1997. A new Ichthyosaur from the Tithonian (Late Jurassic) of the Neuquen Basin, Northwestern Patagonia, Argentina. Journal of Paleontology 71(3):479-484 DOI ↗
Bibliography (1)
M. Fernández. 2007. Redescription and phylogenetic position of Caypullisaurus (Ichthyosauria: Ophthalmosauridae). Journal of Paleontology 81(2):368-375 DOI ↗