TRIASSIC FISHES FROM SPITZBERGEN 
XXVII 
If we first glance at the Ichthyosaurians it is exceedingly noteworthy that they 
could not be established within the series of the Triassic that I took as the lower one. 
A statement made by Wiman (1910, p. 127) to the effect that they occur even in the 
fish horizon is incorrect, but is due to the fact that a number of gill-arches and sclerotic 
fragments belonging to giant Coelacanthids (Wimania? multistriata) were formerly inter¬ 
preted as Ichthyosaurian remains. As is known, Ichthyosaurians are not known outside 
Spitzbergen either earlier than in the middle Triassic. 
As has been pointed out by different authors (Merriam 1911, Merriam and Bryant 
ign; Wiman 1916a; Huene 1916), a large number of resemblances exists between the 
marine Saurian fauna in Spitzbergen and the corresponding fauna in Europe and America. 
It is specially noteworthy, inter alia, that the genus Omphalosaurus, whose systematic 
position is very uncertain (cf. Wiman 1916 a, pp. 70—71), seems, like Phalarodon as well, 1 ) 
to be common to Spitzbergen and America. 
If the resemblances between the Saurian forms of Spitzbergen and America are 
thus very great, there are also, however, as Wiman (1916 a) points out, considerable 
differences as well, and Wiman continues his argument thus (1916a, pp. 71— 72): «These 
differences appear among the ichthyosaurians. In western North America are found 
numerous species of the genera Cymbospondylus, Toretocnemus, Merriamia, Delphinosaurns 
and Shastasaurus, which do not appear in Europe or Spitzbergen. The Central European 
Muschelkalk no doubt also contains one or two specific types and Pessosaurus and 
Pessopteryx are characteristic of Spitzbergen.» 2 ) 
«If we turn to other reptile groups that are not adapted to pelagic mode of living 
in such a high degree as the ichthyosaurians the dissimilarities of course become greater. 
In the Alpine Trias two nothosaurians, Pachypleura (Neusticosanrus) from Besano and 
the somewhat younger Lariosaiirus of Perledo, are found. In the middle European Muschel¬ 
kalk are found numerous nothosaurians and placodonts. The marine Trias beds in Spitz¬ 
bergen also contain several evidently marine labyrinthodonts, and in western North 
America are found thalattosaurians to which one now here has found any analogy.» 
The labyrinthodonts in the Triassic of Spitzbergen are, as Wiman (1914 b) pointed 
out, all marine ones. Except for Capitosaurus polaris the more closely defineable ones 
are from the fish horizon. Capitosaurus and Cyclotosaurus are quoted from South Africa 
(Broom 1909 b, p. 286) in addition to Spitzbergen and the continental Triassic of Europe. 
Although even the other labyrinthodonts of the Spitzbergen Triassic show rather close 
relations to certain forms, from Europe especially, a number of them show, however, a 
striking tendency to a marked lengthening of the snout, to which may also be added 
that in almost all of them the eyes are, independently of the width of the head, farther 
displaced from each other towards the sides than is generally the case in other forms 
(Wiman 1914b, pp. 25—26). Wiman is of the opinion that these characters have arisen 
in connection with specialization for a marine mode of life* 
x ) According to Wiman’ s observations on recently prepared material (Wiman 1920, p. 12). 
2 ) In a work published in 1916 von Huene considers that he found Pessosaurus in the lower Muschelkalk 
of Germany. His material is, however, insignificant and his determination seems, as in various other cases, to be not 
quite reliable (cf. Broili, 1916). 
