Genus Lorrainosaurus Sachs, Madzia, Thuy & Kear, 2023
Type species: Lorrainosaurus keileni (Godefroit, 1994)
Diagnosis: Large-bodied thalassophonean pliosaurid autapomorphically distinguished by a transversely broad, ‘wedge-shaped’ splenial contact that extends anteriorly to the level of the fourth mandibular alveolus. Lorrainosaurus keileni also displays a unique character state combination: (1) laterally expanded and posteriorly constricted ‘spatulate’ symphyseal section of the mandible bearing five to six alveoli; (2) lateral trough on the mandible
anterior to the glenoid fossa; (3) a retroarticular process that is shorter than the glenoid fossa; (4) retroarticular process with posteroventrally oriented dorsoventral long axis and slightly posteromedially inflected mediolateral long axis; (5) wide posteromedial seperation of the coracoids; (6) posterolateral edge of the coracoid (cornu) projecting beyond the level of the glenoid fossa (from Sachs et al. 2023).
Distribution: Middle Jurassic, upper Bajocian, Europe (France and possibly Switzerland).
Lorrainosaurus keileni (Godefroit, 1994)
Holotype: MNHNL BU159, comprising four associated teeth, a maxilla fragment, largely complete mandible, a cervical rib, dorsal and gastral rib fragments, a mesopodial element,a phalanx, the left coracoid.
Stratum typicum: Parkinsonia parkinsoni Zone, upper Bajocian, mid-Middle Jurassic.
Locus typicus: temporary road cutting between Montois-la-Montagne and Sainte-Marie-aux-Chênes, Lorraine, northeastern France.
Diagnosis: As for the genus.
Distribution: Lorrainosaurus keileni is known by the holotype from the upper Bajocian Parkinsonia parkinsoni Zone of Lorraine (France) and by a possibly referred specimen from the lower Bajocian Passwang Formation from the Basel-Land canton (Switzerland).
Possible referred specimen: PIMUZ A/III0521, incomplete mandible (Sachs et al. 2019).
Systematic palaeontology (sensu Sachs et al. 2023)
Plesiosauria de Blainville, 1835
Pliosauridae Seeley, 1874
Thalassophonea Benson & Druckenmiller, 2014
Synonyms
Simolestes keileni Godefroit, 1994
Institutional abbreviations
MNHNL, Musée national d’histoire naturelle de Luxembourg, Luxembourg
PIMUZ, Paläontologisches Institut und Museum der Universität Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
Cited literature
de Blainville, H. M. D. (1835) Description de quelques espèces de reptiles de la Californie, précédée de l’analyse d’une système générale d’Erpetologie et d’Amphibiologie. Nouvelles Archives du Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle. 4, 233–296.
Godefroit, P. (1994) Simolestes keileni sp. nov., un Pliosaure (Plesiosauria, Reptilia) du Bajocien supérieur de Lorraine (France). Bulletin des Académie et Société Lorraines des sciences, 33(2), 77–95.
