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Sauropterygians were a diverse group of aquatic reptiles adapted for flipper-based aquatic locomotion. This group included the plesiosaurs, nothosaurs, and placodonts. Mosasaurs were a group of large, aquatic squamates (relatives of modern-day lizards and snakes) which became the dominant marine predators towards the end of the Cretaceous period.
The following marine reptiles are species which are currently extant or recently extinct. Crocodiles. Crocodylus; Crocodylus acutus (American crocodile)
The specimen, nicknamed "Bruce", is just over 15 m (49 ft) long, [5] but this might be an overestimate as the skeleton was assembled for display prior to a 2010 reassessment of the species that found its original number of vertebrae to be exaggerated, implying that the actual size of the animal was likely smaller. [6] [7]
The genus was one of the first Mesozoic marine reptiles known to science—the first fossils of Mosasaurus were found as skulls in a chalk quarry near the Dutch city of Maastricht in the late 18th century, and were initially thought to be crocodiles or whales. One skull discovered around 1780 was famously nicknamed the "great animal of Maastricht".
The Mesozoic Era [3] is the era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods.It is characterized by the dominance of gymnosperms such as cycads, ginkgoaceae and araucarian conifers, and of archosaurian reptiles such as the dinosaurs; a hot greenhouse climate; and the tectonic break-up of Pangaea.
However, it is a considerably larger animal, around the size of a wild turkey, being among the largest known flying Mesozoic paravians. Another dromaeosaurid species, Deinonychus antirrhopus, may display partial flight capacities. The young of this species bore longer arms and more robust pectoral girdles than adults, and which were similar to ...
When the first phytosaur fossils were found, it was not immediately obvious what kind of animal/species they were. The first phytosaur species known to science was named Phytosaurus cylindricodon – "plant lizard with cylindrical teeth" – by G. Jaeger in 1828 because he mistakenly believed that petrified mud fillings in the jaw were ...
Pages in category "Mesozoic reptiles" This category contains only the following page. This list may not reflect recent changes. I. Ichthyosauriformes