Caypullisaurus
genus of reptiles (fossil)
Caypullisaurus is an extinct genus of platypterygiine ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaur from the Late Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous (Tithonian and Berriasian stages) of Argentina. Its holotype was collected from the Vaca Muerta Formation of Cerro Lotena, Neuquen, dating to the early Tithonian stage of the Late Jurassic, about 150 million years ago. Caypullisaurus was first named by Marta Fernández in 1997 and the type species is Caypullisaurus bonapartei. It was a large ichthyosaur, measuring about 7 m (23 ft) long. The forelimbs of Caypullisaurus contained 10 digits each.
Classification
It is a member of the family Ophthalmosauridae, and closely related to Platypterygius and Brachypterygius. In 2012, Caypullisaurus was found to be most closely related to Athabascasaurus and "Platypterygius" australis, and to nest within the subfamily Platypterygiinae.
Phylogeny
The following cladogram shows a possible phylogenetic position of Caypullisaurus in Ophthalmosauridae according to the analysis performed by Zverkov and Jacobs (2020).
The public source identifies “Caypullisaurus” as genus of reptiles (fossil). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Caypullisaurus, genus and reptiles.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Caypullisaurus”, the useful work is to connect “genus of reptiles (fossil)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16964188. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1997, 2012 and 2020.
Current terminology should not be projected backward without checking the classification used when the underlying evidence was created. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Caypullisaurus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.