In Depth Saurosphargis is a little known placodont who’s only known collection of remains were destroyed in World War Two. Although this means that the original fossils are no longer available for study, the original description did mention that the rib structure of Saurosphargis was very similar to that of the Paraplacodus. This indicates that … Read more
In Depth Paraplacodus was very similar to another placodont named Placodus, hence the name which means ‘almost Placodus’, and as such it would have looked like a cross between a newt and a marine iguana with small teeth that protruded from the front of the mouth. These teeth would allow for a feeding behaviour where … Read more
In Depth As dedicated eaters of shellfish, the placodonts had no need to grow big and were soon outsized by other marine reptiles such as the nothosaurs. As such placodonts like Cyamodus developed turtle-like shells to try and make themselves too tough for other marine reptiles to eat. Cyamodus itself had two shells, the first … Read more
In Depth Parahenodus is a genus of placodont that lived in European waters during the late Triassic. The placodonts were marine reptiles that hunted for shellfish. The holotype skull of Parahenodus is very similar to the Henodus genus, hence the name Parahenodus which means ‘near Henodus’. Like Henodus, Parahenodus would be expected to have had … Read more
In Depth With two body shells Psephoderma was very similar to Cyamodus although it was much larger. It is also these shells, or rather the pebbly appearance of them that was the inspiration of the name that means ‘pebbly skin’. Psephoderma was one of the larger placodonts, particularly of the shelled variety. This may be … Read more
In Depth Placodus is one of the most often represented reptiles of the placodont group, and the most common of the ‘unarmoured’ variety that seemed to be similar to marine iguanas. Unlike the algae eating marine iguana however, Placodus was a dedicated durophagous shellfish eater. In its search for food it used specialised forward pointing … Read more
In Depth Although many of the placodonts had shells only a few like Henodus and Placochelys had single shells that covered the entire body, while others like Cyamodus had two shells. Henodus has one of the most well developed single shells of all placodonts made up by a fusion of a large number of scutes … Read more