page_title: Californosaurus
section_title: Taxonomy
hierarchical_section_title: Californosaurus / Taxonomy
caption_attribution_description: English: A comparison of the body sizes between an en:Californosaurus and an adult male human.
context_page_description: Californosaurus is an extinct genus of ichthyosaur, an extinct marine reptile, from the Lower Hosselkus Limestone of California.
context_section_description: Merriam (1902) described it as a new species of Shastasaurus, S. perrini. He later recognized the species as generically distinct from the Shastasaurus type species, erecting Delphinosaurus for S. perrini. However, Delphinosaurus had been previously used for an ophthalmosaurid from Albian-Cenomanian deposits in European Russia, and Kuhn (1934) provided the generic replacement name Californosaurus. Merriam (1938) independently erected Perrinosaurus to replace Delphinosaurus, but this is a junior objective synonym.
caption: Californosaurus with a human to scale.
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