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Illustration of the skeletal anatomy of a Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus from Conybeare's 1824 paper that described an almost complete plesiosaur skeleton found by Mary Anning in 1823. Plesiosaurus was a moderately sized plesiosaur that grew to 2.87–3.5 m (9.4–11.5 ft) in length.
The Plesiosauria [a] [4] or plesiosaurs are an order or clade of extinct Mesozoic marine reptiles, belonging to the Sauropterygia. Plesiosaurs first appeared in the latest Triassic Period , possibly in the Rhaetian stage, about 203 million years ago. [ 5 ]
This list of plesiosaurs is a comprehensive listing of all genera that have ever been included in the order Plesiosauria, excluding purely vernacular terms.The list includes all commonly accepted genera, but also genera that are now considered invalid, doubtful (nomen dubium), or were not formally published (nomen nudum), as well as junior synonyms of more established names, and genera that ...
The skull is 47 centimetres (19 in; 1.54 ft) long, with 5 centimetres (2.0 in) long teeth. The flippers were about 1.5–2 metres (4.9–6.6 ft) long. Stones have been found in its stomach area leading some to theorize that they were used for ballast or digestion .
Elasmosaurus differed from all other plesiosaurs by having 72 neck vertebrae; more may have been present but were later lost to erosion or after excavation. Only Albertonectes had more neck vertebrae, 76, and the two are the only plesiosaurs with a count higher than 70; more than 60 vertebrae is very derived (or "advanced") for plesiosaurs. [14 ...
Plesiosaurus longirostris. Toarcian [5] Toarcian [5] Toarcian [5] Skeletal mount of Hauffiosaurus longirostris: Pliosaurus brachydeirus. Early Kimmeridgian [15] Early Kimmeridgian [15] Kimmeridgian, [5] Early Kimmeridgian [15] Life restoration of Pliosaurus brachydeirus: Pliosaurus portentificus. Kimmeridgian [5] Kimmeridgian [5] Kimmeridgian ...
As the first species name given to a distinctive and well preserved Plesiosaurus skeleton it has come to be regarded as both the type specimen of Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus specifically and of the genus Plesiosaurus as a whole. [15] [17] 1829. Mary Anning collected the Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus specimen now known as BMNH R.1313. [18]
Pliosaurus brachydeirus is the (combinatio nova of the) type species of the genus. It was first described and named by the English paleontologist Richard Owen in 1841, as a species of the wastebasket taxon Plesiosaurus in its own subgenus Pleiosaurus, creating Plesiosaurus (Pleiosaurus) brachydeirus. [5]