Name:
Eardasaurus
(home lizard).
Phonetic: Ear-dah-sor-us.
Named By: Hilary Ketchum & Roger Benson
- 2022.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Sauropterygia, Plesiosauria, Pliosauridae.
Species: E. powelli (type).
Diet: Carnivore/Piscivore.
Size: Skull about 89 centimetres long. Full
body length about 4.7 meters long.
Known locations: England - Oxford Clay Formation.
Time period: Callovian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Almost complete skull and
jaws and most of the post cranial skeleton.
Eardasaurus
is a genus of pliosaur
known to have lived around European waters
during the Middle Jurassic. The skull of Eardasaurus
displays some
proportional features that are similar to the famous Liopleurodon,
including a diastema where the premaxilla meets the maxilla.
However the skull of Eardasaurus suggests that as
many as thirty-four
to thirty-five teeth may have been present across the skull tooth
bearing bones, almost double the number of teeth present in
Liopleurodon. The preserved teeth in Eardasaurus
also have traces of
what appears to have been enamelled cutting edges in life.
Further reading
- A new pliosaurid from the Oxford Clay Formation of Oxfordshire,
UK. - Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 67. - Hilary Ketchum
& Roger Benson - 2022.