Macroplata
Name:
Macroplata
(Big plate).
Phonetic: Mack-roe-plat-ah.
Named By: Swinton - 1930.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Sauropterygia, Plesiosaura, Pliosauroidea, Rhomaleosauridae.
Species: M. tenuiceps
(type).
Diet: Piscivore.
Size: Up to 4.5 meters long.
Known locations: England - Blue Lias Formation..
Time period: Hettangian through to the Toarcian of
the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: One individual.
Macroplata
is classed as a rhomaleosaurid pliosaur,
a group notable for having
proportionately longer necks and smaller skulls than the more
well-known short necked large skulled pliosaurs such as Liopleurodon,
Simolestes
and of course Pliosaurus
itself. A better analogy is that
Macroplata looks like a cross between the longer
necked plesiosaurs
of
the Jurassic and the earlier nothosaurs
of the Triassic which are
thought to be the ancestors of both the plesiosaurs and pliosaurs.
Macroplata
is notable for probably being a very powerful swimmer, something
which is indicated by the large shoulder bones that could have
supported more powerful muscles for the front limbs. These features
combined with the numerous needle-like teeth of the mouth paint a
picture of Macroplata being a fast swimming
predator of fish. However
while the neck was longer than some other pliosaurs it was not as long
as the plesiosaurs, particularly the much later elasmosaurids which
suggests that Macroplata probably had a different
hunting technique.
The actual hunting behaviour of Macroplata may
have been more along
the lines of swimming around a shoal of fish and catching fish which
couldn’t stay in sync with the shoals movements, or using its speed
to charge into a shoal and snapping at fish before they could swim out
of the way.
There
was once a second species of Macroplata based upon
fossil remains
originally described as Plesiosaurus longirostris.
This was identified
as having a particularly long snout, and in 2011 this species was
actually re-assigned to the genus Hauffiosaurus.
Further reading
- The anatomy and taxonomy of Macroplata tenuiceps
(Sauropterygia,
Plesiosauria) from the Hettangian (Lower Jurassic) of Warwickshire,
United Kingdom. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 30(4):1069-1081. -
H. F. Ketchum & A. S. Smith - 2010.
- New information on Hauffiosaurus (Reptilia,
Plesiosauria) based on a
new species from the Alum Shale Member (Lower Toarcian: Lower Jurassic)
of Yorkshire, UK. - Palaeontology 54(3):547-571. - R. B. J. Benson, H.
F. Ketchum, L. F. Noe & M. Gomez-Perez - 2011.
Random favourites
|
 |
 |
 |
|||
 |
 |
 |
 |