Life restoration of Kuehneosuchus and Kuehneosaurus (right)
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Reptilia
Family:
†Kuehneosauridae
Genus:
†Kuehneosaurus Robinson 1962
Type species
†Kuehneosaurus latus
Robinson 1962
Skull reconstruction
Kuehneosaurus is an extinct genus of Late Triassic kuehneosaurid reptile known from the Late Triassic (Norian stage) of the Penarth Group of southwest England and the Steinmergel Group of Luxembourg. Temperature at this stage and region would have ranged from 28 to 35 °C.[1] It was named by P. L. Robinson in 1962 in honour of paleontologist Walther Kühn, and the type and only species is Kuehneosaurus latus. Measuring 72 centimetres long (2.3 feet), it had "wings" formed from ribs which jutted out from its body by as much as 14.3 cm,[2] connected by a membrane which allowed it to slow its descent when jumping from trees. It is a member of a family of extinct gliding reptiles, the Kuehneosauridae, within a larger living group the Lepidosauromorpha, which contain modern lizards and tuatara.[3]
Unlike its longer "winged" relative Kuehneosuchus (which may be a species of the same genus or represent a different sexual morph), aerodynamic studies have shown that Kuehneosaurus was probably not a glider, but instead used its elongated ribs to parachute from the trees. A study by Stein et al. in 2008 found that its parachuting speed, descending at a 45-degree angle, would be between 10 and 12 metres per second. Pitch was controlled by lappets (wattle-like flaps of skin) on the hyoid apparatus, as in the modern gliding lizard Draco.[2]
^Sun, Y. D.; Orchard, M. J.; Kocsis, Á. T.; Joachimski, M. M. (2020-03-15). "Carnian–Norian (Late Triassic) climate change: Evidence from conodont oxygen isotope thermometry with implications for reef development and Wrangellian tectonics". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 534: 116082. Bibcode:2020E&PSL.53416082S. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2020.116082. ISSN 0012-821X. S2CID 213014193.
^ abStein, K., Palmer, C., Gill, P.G., and Benton, M.J. (2008). "The aerodynamics of the British Late Triassic Kuehneosauridae." Palaeontology, 51(4): 967-981. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2008.00783.x
^Evans, S.C. (2003). "At the feet of the dinosaurs: the early history and radiation of lizards." Biological Reviews, 78: 513–551.
Kuehneosaurus is an extinct genus of Late Triassic kuehneosaurid reptile known from the Late Triassic (Norian stage) of the Penarth Group of southwest...
ribs, relatively short and massive in Kuehneosaurus but longer and more gracile in Kuehneosuchus. Kuehneosaurus was likely only capable of parachuting...
vertebrae and ribs. It is a derived kuehneosaurid, most closely related to Kuehneosaurus. The genera are very similar and can be distinguished from one another...
rather than a choristodere) and fossils of a possible procolophonid, Kuehneosaurus latus, rhynchocephalians, a possible lepidosauromorph similar to Cryptovaranoides...
10 centimeters (4 in) long from the skull to the hips. Like its relative Kuehneosaurus, it was able to glide short distances using 'wings' consisting of highly...
Mecistotrachelos, and the Cretaceous lizard Xianglong. The largest of these, Kuehneosaurus, has a wingspan of 30 centimetres (12 in), and was estimated to be able...
plumes in a pattern akin to gliding lizards like Draco species and Kuehneosaurus latus, allowing it to glide, or at least parachute. Though the reconstruction...
(genus Draco, Latin for dragon) and Triassic fossil reptiles such as Kuehneosaurus, but the Triassic look-alikes lived over 100 million years before Xianglong...
Global Information
