Eonatator
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Eonatator Temporal range: Santonian–Campanian Late Cretaceous |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Family: | Mosasauridae |
| Subfamily: | Halisaurinae |
| Genus: |
Eonatator Bardet et al., 2005 |
| Type species | |
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Clidastes sternbergii Wiman 1920 |
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| Species | |
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Eonatator is a genus of halisaurine mosasaur from the Upper Cretaceous of North America, South America and Europe. Originally, this taxon was included within Halisaurus, but was placed in its own genus.Eonatator is known from the Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Chalk Formation (Upper Coniacian - Lower Campanian) of Kansas, from the Eutaw Formation (Santonian) and Mooreville Chalk Formation (Selma Group; Santonian-Lower Campanian) of Alabama (United States), from the Kristianstad Basin of southern Sweden (late early Campanian), and the unit Nivel de Lutitas y Arenas (Campanian) in La Mesa, Colombia. The name Eonatator means "dawn swimmer" (Greek eos = dawn + Latin natator = swimmer). Originally it contains only a single species, E. sternbergii. The species is named in honour of Charles H. Sternberg and his son, Levi, who discovered the type specimen in the Niobrara Chalk during the summer of 1918. A second species, E. coellensis, was named for the town of Coello in the Department of Tolima in Colombia, near of which it was discovered.
Like many mosasaurs, this genus has a complicated taxonomic history. The type specimen (UPI R 163, Uppsala University Palaeontological Institute, Uppsala, Sweden), a nearly complete skeleton, was originally referred to the genus Clidastes by Wiman and then to Halisaurus by Russell. Hence, Clidastes sternbergii became Halisaurus sternbergii. However, by the late 1980s, some paleontologists began to suggest that H. sternbergii belonged in its own genus and that Halisaurus was polyphyletic.
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