page_title: Eichstaettisaurus
section_title: E. gouldi
hierarchical_section_title: Eichstaettisaurus / Paleoecology / E. gouldi
context_page_description: Eichstaettisaurus is a genus of lizards from the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous of Germany, Spain, and Italy. With a flattened head, forward-oriented and partially symmetrical feet, and tall claws, Eichstaettisaurus bore many adaptations to a climbing lifestyle approaching those of geckoes. The type species, E. schroederi, is among the oldest and most complete members of the Squamata, being known by one specimen originating from the Tithonian-aged Solnhofen Limestone of Germany. A second species, E. gouldi, was described from another skeleton found in the Matese Mountains of Italy. Despite being very similar to E. schroederi, it lived much later, during the Albian stage. Fossils of both species show exceptional preservation due to deposition in low-oxygen marine environments.
  Initially named as a species of the genus Ardeosaurus by Ferdinand Broili in 1938, E. schroederi has had a convoluted taxonomic history. It was initially recognized as a relative of night lizards until research in the 1960s identified it and Ardeosaurus as geckoes. However, phylogenetic analyses conducted in the 1990s suggested that it was closer to the ancestor of all squamates.
context_section_description: The Pietraroia locality, from where E. gouldi specimens are known, is formed by a plattenkalk outcrop at the top of a rock slope (the "Civita di Pietraroia") located at the eastern margin of the Matese Mountains. These mountains did not start to form until the Miocene, with the majority of the tectonic uplift that brought them to their current elevation having occurred between the Pliocene and the Pleistocene. At the locality, there are two distinct plattenkalk beds; the lower bed is coarser-grained and is largely devoid of fossils, while the upper bed is muddier and is the source of most fossils. The two beds are separated by lagoonal limestones. The plattenkalk is formed by layers of packstone and grainstone measuring 2–25 cm (0.79–9.84 in) thick, which alternate with layers of mudstone, wackestone, and marl; the upper bed is also characterized by the presence of sponge spicules, chert, bitumen, and coprolites.
  On the basis of foraminiferans, the Pietaroia locality has been dated to the Albian epoch of the Early Cretaceous. During this time, the plattenkalk of Pietraroia would have been laid down in a shallow water carbonate platform close to a small island. The depositional environment was originally thought to have been a lagoon, but it has been re-interpreted as an east-flowing underwater channel that was gradually filled during the Aptian, based on patterns in the arrangement of fossils, the water currents, and the transportation of sediments. The lack of bioturbation likewise points to an anoxic environment, possibly related to a global oceanic anoxic event. Some fossils are well preserved while others were nearly destroyed, suggesting that they originated from various locations, with terrestrial animals like E. gouldi being brought into the channel by freshwater flows. The climate would have been tropical to subtropical.
  In addition to E. gouldi and the rhynchocephalian MPN A01/82, other lepidosaurs from Pietraroia include the lizards Chometokadmon fitzingeri and Costasaurus rusconi, and the rhynchocephalian Derasmosaurus pietraroiae as well as a third unnamed juvenile specimen. The most well known fossil from Pietraroia is that of the compsognathid dinosaur Scipionyx samniticus, which preserves soft tissues including internal organs. Other reptiles include two crocodyliform specimens belonging to Pietraroiasuchus ormezzanoi, and the albanerpetontid amphibian Celtedens megacephalus. Many fish are known from Pietraroia, with the most common being a pycnodontid formerly identified as Coelodus costae but now known as Gregoriopycnodus bassanii. Others include Anaethalion robustus, Belonostomus crassirostris, Caeus leopoldi, Cavinichthys pietrarojae, Chirocentrites coroninii, relatives of Diplomystus brevissimus and Elopopsis fenzii, Hemieloposis gibbus, Ionoscopus petrarojae, Italophiopsis derasmoi, a species of Lepidotes, Notagogus pentlandi, Pleuropholis decastroi, Propterus scacchii, and Sauropsidium laevissimum. Cartilaginous fish included the angelshark Phorcynis and the ray Rhinobatus obtusatus. Invertebrates included rudists, bivalves, sea snails of the genus Nerinea, shrimp, and starfish.
caption: Scipionyx samniticus is a well known fossil from Pietraroia
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