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Journal of Paleontology

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GASTROLITHS IN THE TRIASSIC ICHTHYOSAUR PANJIANGSAURUS FROM CHINA

¹ Yichang Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources, China Geological Survey, PO Box 502, Yichang, Hubei Province 443003, <ycclong@cgs.gov.cn>,
² Institute of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Sigwartstr. 10, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany, <oliver.wings@web.de>,
³ Institute of Paleontology, University of Bonn, Nussallee 8, D-53113 Germany, <martin.sander@uni-bonn.de>

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

	INTRODUCTION

 
Gastroliths (stomach stones) are frequently reported in association with plesiosaur remains, especially elasmosaurids (e.g., Brown, 1904; Williston, 1904; Welles and Bump, 1949; Darby and Ojakangas, 1980; Everhart, 2000; Cicimurri and Everhart, 2001). Stones are also known from several other fossil and modern aquatic vertebrates, including fishes (Dapples, 1938; Thomson, 1966; Trewin, 1986), penguins (Emery, 1963; Stonehouse, 1967; Boswall and MacIver, 1975), crocodilians (Cott, 1961; Neill, 1971; Keller and Schaal, 1992), and pinnipeds (Fleming, 1951; Mohr, 1963; Bryden, 1999).

However, gastroliths are very rarely reported in ichthyosaurs, despite the fact that a large number of articulated skeletons are known from this clade. Some ichthyosaurs show preserved gut contents (e.g., Pollard, 1968; Keller, 1976; Kear et al., 2003), and sand is occasionally found in the gastric area of ichthyosaurs (R. Wild, personal commun., 2000; Wings, personal obs.). Gastroliths with grain sizes >2 mm are only known from two specimens: the one described in detail here and a complete but undescribed skeleton from the famous Upper Jurassic Solnhofen Limestone of Germany (Taylor, 1993; Wings, personal observation). The German specimen is probably referable to the genus Nannopterygius Huene, 1922, so far only known from England. The specimen is preserved as a slab, which is on exhibit at the Jura-Museum, Eichstätt, Germany, and a counterslab, which is accessioned to the collections of the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, Karlsruhe, Germany.

A description of the stones found in the perfect holotype specimen (Museum of the Yichang Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources # TR00001) of Panjiangsaurus epicharis described by Chen and Cheng (2003) (Fig. 1) is important not only because of the scarcity of ichthyosaurian gastroliths, the . . . [Full Text of this Article]