Thaumatodracon
Name:
Thaumatodracon (Wonder dragon).
Phonetic: Fow-mah-toe-dray-kon.
Named By: A. S. Smith & R. Ara�jo
- 2017.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Sauropterygia, Plesiosauria, Rhomaleosauridae.
Species: T. wiedenrothi
(type).
Diet: Carnivore/piscivore.
Size: Holotype skull roughly about 65 centimetres
long. Total length uncertain, but holotype specimen roughly estimated
at 4 meters long when compared to other rhomaleosaurid pliosaurs.
Known locations: United Kingdom, England, Dorset.
Time period: Sinemurian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Skull and cervical vertebrae.
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 in the Tethys Ocean that once submerged much of Europe.
Further reading
- Thaumatodracon wiedenrothi, a
morphometrically and
stratigraphically intermediate new rhomaleosaurid plesiosaurian from
the Lower Jurassic (Sinemurian) of Lyme Regis. -
Palaeontographica Abteilung A 308(4–6):89-125. - A. S.
Smith & R. Ara�jo - 2017.
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