Lentamanusuchus hubeiensis was a small marine reptile that lived during the early Triassic, about 248 million years ago, in shallow tropical seas covering what is now southwestern China.
It was part of a group known as hupehsuchians, early cousins of ichthyosaurs that had toothless jaws, paddle-shaped limbs, eel-like tails, and distinctive bony armor along their backs.
Around 1.2m long (~4′), Lentamanusuchus had particularly broad flippers with extra bones in its hands, a transitional state between its ancestors and later polydactylous hupehsuchians.
References:
- Qiao, Yu, Masaya Iijima, and Jun Liu. “A new hupehsuchian (Reptilia: Ichthyosauromorpha) with widely spaced autopodium from the marine Lower Triassic of South China.” Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 23.1 (2025): 2560884. https://doi.org/10.1080/14772019.2025.2560884
- Wikipedia contributors. “Hupehsuchia” Wikipedia, 25 May. 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hupehsuchia
- Wikipedia contributors. “Lentamanusuchus” Wikipedia, 10 Oct. 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lentamanusuchus