| Ophthalmosauridae Temporal range: Middle Jurassic-Late Cretaceous, 171.6–93.5 Ma |
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| Ophthalmosaurus icenicus skeleton | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | †Ichthyosauria |
| Node: | †Ophthalmosauria |
| Family: | †Ophthalmosauridae Baur, 1887 |
| Genera | |
Ophthalmosauridae is an extinct family of thunnosaur ichthyosaurs from the Middle Jurassic to the early Late Cretaceous (Bajocian - Cenomanian) of Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America.[1] Currently, the oldest known ophthalmosaurid is Mollesaurus from the early Bajocian of Argentina.[2] Named by George H. Baur, in 1887, it contains the basal taxa like Ophthalmosaurus.[1] Appleby (1956) named the taxon Ophthalmosauria which was followed by some authors,[3][4] but if these two names are synonyms, Ophthalmosauridae has the priority over Ophthalmosauria.[1]
Ophthalmosauridae is a node-based taxon defined by Ryosuke Motani (1999) as "the last common ancestor of Brachypterygius extremus and Ophthalmosaurus icenicus and all of its descendants". The definition he proposed for Ophthalmosauria was exactly the same.[3] In this case both defintions are synonyms. The cladogram below follows the topology from a 2010 analysis by Patrick S. Druckenmiller and Erin E. Maxwell.[4]
| Thunnosauria |
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Valentin Fischer, Edwige Masure, Maxim S. Arkhangelsky and Pascal Godefroit (2011) described a new genus of Ophthalmosauridae. They redefined it as "the last common ancestor of Arthropterygius chrisorum and Ophthalmosaurus icenicus and all of its descendants". In this case Ophthalmosauria isn't a junior synonym of Ophthalmosauridae. The cladogram below follows Fischer et al. 2011.[1]
| Thunnosauria |
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*Note: Placement of Ophthalmosauria by definition.