Contectopalatus

Contectopalatus was a primitive ichthyosaur, an extinct fish-like marine reptile from the Middle Triassic of Germany and China.[2] It was originally named Ichthyosaurus atavus by Quenstedt in 1852,[3]^: 67 and later reassigned to Mixosaurus. It was recognised as a separate genus by Maisch and Matzke in 1998, though other researchers have classified it as a species of Phalarodon instead.[2][4][5]

Contectopalatus Temporal range: Mid Triassic,
Fossil
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	†Ichthyosauria
Family:	†Mixosauridae
Genus:	†Contectopalatus Maisch & Matzke, 1998
Species:	†C. atavus
Binomial name
†Contectopalatus atavus Quenstedt, 1851 (originally Ichthyosaurus)

Restoration

In 2000, Maisch and Matzke noted that Contectopalatus was a large mixosaurid, calculating a skull length of 40 centimetres (1 ft 4 in). Based on jaw fragments, they estimated another specimen they assigned to the species to have been even larger, with a skull length of 70–80 centimetres (2.3–2.6 ft) and a total length of roughly 4.5–5 metres (15–16 ft).[6][7] McGowan and Motani (2003), however, considered these estimates to be based on material to fragmentary for confident estimation and taxonomic assignment, instead considering the species to be a small mixosaurid, like the roughly 1 metre (3.3 ft) long Mixosaurus cornalianus.[3]^: 67