In Depth Maresaurus is one of the rhomaleosaurid pliosaurs, a group that seem to be between the long necked plesiosaurs and short necked pliosaurs in form. Additionally the fact that Maresaurus comes from South America combined with the presence of Yuzhoupliosaurus in China, produces a picture of the rhomaleosaurid pliosaurs having a global distribution. Other … Read more
In Depth Mauriciosaurus is a genus of polycotylid plesiosaur known to have lived in waters of what would have been the southern portion of the Western Interior Seaway, the shallow sea that once submerged the middle portion of North America. The holotype specimen of Mauriciosaurus was found in Mexico, and has proven to be a … Read more
In Depth Wangosaurus is a genus of pistosaurs that lived in the waters around what is now China during the Triassic. Pistosaurs like Wangosaurus were the precursors to the plesiosaurs that would rise to prominence by the end of the Triassic, and go on to live in the worlds ‘oceans throughout the Mesozoic. Further Reading … Read more
In Depth Initially described as a species of Plesiosaurus back in 1910, Meyerasaurus has spent a lot of time being shunted around from one genus to another before it was given its own place. First the remains were moved from Plesiosaurus to Thaumatosaurus. Then a long necked pliosaur called Rhomaleosaurus was suggested to be a … Read more
In Depth Tricleidus is but one of many cryptoclidid plesiosaurs active in European waters during the Jurassic, although it is not as well-known as the type genus of this group, Cryptoclidus. The type species name T. seeleyi is in honour of the British palaeontologist Harry Govier Seeley. Another species based upon American fossils once attributed … Read more
In Depth Majiashanosaurus is a genus of sauropterygian reptile that lived in waters around China during the early Triassic. Further Reading - The Early Triassic eosauropterygian Majiashanosaurus discocoracoidis, gen. et sp. nov. (Reptilia, Sauropterygia), from Chaohu, Anhui Province, People’s Republic of China. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 34 (5): 1044–1052. - Da-Yong Jiang, Ryosuke Motani, … Read more
In Depth Formally named in 2017, Thaumatodracon was a medium sized rhomaleosaurid pliosaur. For those unfamiliar with the term, rhomaleosaurids were very similar to the long necked plesiosaurs, but with significantly larger skulls than other pliosaurs. As such, and like other rhomaleosaurids, Thaumatodracon would have been a predator of medium to large sized fish, hunting … Read more
In Depth Usually seen as a nothosaur, Simosaurus was a marine reptile that lived in European waters during the Triassic. The teeth of Simosaurus are quite blunt and while the jaws of Simosaurus are quite gracile, the way the muscles attached show that they could be closed very quickly. It is possible that Simosaurus used … Read more
In Depth The first specimen of Styxosaurus was of a skull and twenty cervical (neck) vertebrae, but was initially described as a species of Cimoliasaurus (C. snowii) by Samuel Wendell Williston in 1890. Williston then shifted it over as a species of Elasmosaurus in 1906 as E. snowii. Later study by Samuel Paul Welles led … Read more
In Depth Liopleurodon was an apex predator of the Jurassic seas. With a skull, and jaws taking up one fifth of the total length of the animal it had a powerful bite. The twenty centimetre teeth buried deep into the jaws further reinforce this idea. Liopleurodon had a typical pliosaur limb arrangement and although not … Read more