Pleurosaurus  is an extinct genus of diapsid reptile belonging to the order Sphenodontia, and therefore related to the modern tuatara. Pleurosaurus fossils were discovered in the Solnhofen limestone formation of Bavaria, Germany.

 Pleurosaurus is one of the few known aquatic sphenodontians. Its body was approximately 60 centimetres (2.0 ft) long, and elongated for hydrodynamic streamlining, with comparatively short limbs and a powerful tail. It would have been able to swim rapidly, by undulating its slender body in a snake-like fashion. It had only small limbs, which probably did not aid in swimming, and nostrils placed far back on the head, close to the eyes.

 Плеврозавры (Pleurosauridae) — семейство вымерших морских диапсидных рептилий из отряда клювоголовых (Sphenodontia). Останки этого семейства были найдены в Баварии в отложениях юрского и мелового периода.

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Tags: Вымершие рептилии, Юра, диапсиды, клювоголовые, лепидозавроморфы, лепидозавры

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 Clevosaurus (CLEE-vo-SORE-us) ("Gloucester lizard") is an extinct genus of sphenodontian reptile from the Triassic and the Jurassic periods of Nova Scotia, Great Britain, (C. bairdi) and Yunnan (C. mcgilli). Clevosaurus was extremely similar to the modern tuatara in almost every way; the two genera differ in only certain features of the teeth and skull anatomies, as well as size. Clevosaurus was smaller than the modern Tuatara. Clevosaurus possibly ate plants as well as insects, as suggested by the form of the teeth. Fossils of Clevosaurus, as well as other sphenodontians, early mammals and dinosaurs have been found in ancient cave systems of Great Britain. Clevosaurus is now believed to have had Pangaean distribution.

 Some fossils from South America (into Geopark of Paleorrota) found in 2006 represent a new species of Clevosaurus (C. brasiliensis).

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Tags: Вымершие рептилии, Триас, диапсиды, клювоголовые, лепидозавроморфы, лепидозавры

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 Brachyrhinodon is an extinct genus of sphenodontian from the Triassic of Scotland .

 Sphenodontia is an order of lizard-like reptiles that includes only one living genus, the tuatara (Sphenodon), and only two living species. Despite its current lack of diversity, the Sphenodontia at one time included a wide array of genera in several families, and represents a lineage stretching back to the Mesozoic Era.

 Sphenodonts, and their sister group Squamata (which includes lizards, snakes and amphisbaenians), belong to the superorder Lepidosauria, the only surviving taxon within Lepidosauromorpha. Squamates and sphenodonts both show caudal autotomy (loss of the tail-tip when threatened), and have transverse cloacal slits. The origin of the sphenodonts probably lies close to the split between the Lepidosauromorpha and the Archosauromorpha. Though they resemble lizards, the similarity is superficial, because the group has several characteristics unique among reptiles. The typical lizard shape is very common for the early amniotes; the oldest known fossil of a reptile, the Hylonomus, resembles a modern lizard.

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Tags: Вымершие рептилии, Триас, диапсиды, клювоголовые, лепидозавроморфы, лепидозавры

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