page_title: Ophthalmosaurinae
section_title: Phylogeny
hierarchical_section_title: Ophthalmosaurinae / Phylogeny
caption_attribution_description: Ophthalmosaurus icenicus, an ichthyosaur from the Late Jurassic, pencil drawing
context_page_description: Ophthalmosaurinae is an extinct subfamily of ophthalmosaurid thunnosaur ichthyosaurs from the Middle Jurassic to the late Early Cretaceous of Europe, North America and South America. Currently, the oldest and the basalmost known ophthalmosaurine is Mollesaurus from the early Bajocian of Argentina. Ophthalmosaurines were characterized by a large extracondylar area of the basioccipital in form of a thick and concave peripheral band, posterodistally deflected ulnar facet of the humerus, large ulna with concave and edgy posterior surface and ischiopubis with obturator foramen.
context_section_description: Ophthalmosaurinae was named in 1887 by George H. Baur. It is a stem-based taxon defined phylogenetically for the first time by Fischer et al. (2012) as "all taxa closer to Ophthalmosaurus icenicus than to Platypterygius hercynicus". The cladogram below follows Fischer et al. 2012.
caption: Ophthalmosaurus
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