Termatosaurus Plieninger, 1844

Sues, Hans-Dieter & Schoch, Rainer R., 2025, Synopsis of the Triassic reptiles from Germany, Fossil Record 28 (2), pp. 411-483 : 411-483

Genus Termatosaurus Plieninger in Meyer & Plieninger, 1844

Type species.

Termatosaurus albertii Plieninger in Meyer & Plieninger, 1844.

Plieninger (in Meyer and Plieninger 1844) described isolated tooth crowns from bonebeds in the Rhätsandstein at Stuttgart-Degerloch and other localities such as Bebenhausen near Tübingen in Baden-Württemberg. He identified them as representing a new taxon, Termatosaurus albertii . Quenstedt (1858) distinguished two dental morphotypes of this ‘ species, ’ one with a round cross-section and lacking apicobasal ridges and the other with more slender crowns bearing distinct apicobasal ridges. He noted that the latter resembled teeth of “ Dracosaurus ” (= Nothosaurus ).

Based on teeth from the Rhaetian of Steinenbronn, Böblingen district, Baden-Württemberg, Quenstedt (1858) named a second species, Termatosaurus crocodilinus , which he distinguished from T. albertii by the possession of blunt tooth crowns with two carinae and typically worn apices. Endlich (1870) illustrated tooth crowns of both ‘ species’ of Termatosaurus . E. Fraas (1896) assigned both ‘ species’ of Termatosaurus to the phytosaur Mystriosuchus .

Isolated tooth crowns of both ‘ species’ assigned to Termatosaurus are not uncommon in bonebeds in the Rhätsandstein of Baden-Württemberg. They resemble those of various sauropterygians, especially plesiosaurs. F. Huene (1902) even synonymized Termatosaurus with Plesiosaurus . These teeth possibly belong to the same taxon or taxa as isolated vertebral centra from the Rhaetian bonebeds that share with those of plesiosaurs the presence of a pair of symmetrically positioned vascular foramina on their ventral surfaces ( Endlich 1870; F. Huene 1902).

References.

Meyer and Plieninger (1844), Quenstedt (1858), Endlich (1870), E. Fraas (1896), F. Huene (1902).