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Pliosaurids
Pliosauridae is a family (biology), family of plesiosaurian marine reptiles from the Late Triassic, Latest Triassic to the early Late Cretaceous (Rhaetian to Turonian stages). The family is more inclusive than the archetypal short-necked large headed species that are placed in the subclade Thalassophonea, with early, Primitive (phylogenetics), primitive forms resembling other plesiosaurs with long necks. The largest thalassophonean pliosaurs reached , in length, with around a quarter of this length being the head. Thalassophonean pliosaurs represented the largest marine predators during their existence, spanning more than 80 million years. Pliosaurs went extinct during the early Late Cretaceous and were subsequently replaced by the mosasaurs. Taxonomy Pliosauridae was formally named by Harry Seeley, Harry G. Seeley in 1874. Pliosauridae is a stem-based taxon defined in 2010 (and in earlier studies in a similar manner) as "all taxa more closely related to ''Pliosaurus brachyde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pachycostasaurus
''Pachycostasaurus'' (meaning 'thick-ribbed lizard') is an extinct Pliosauroid from the Oxford Clay formation of Peterborough, England. History and naming The holotype fossil of ''Pachycostasaurus'' was discovered by Alan Dawn, an amateur geologist and museum volunteer, in what is now a quarry in Peterborough. The fossil was described in 1996 by Palaeontologists Arthur Cruickshank, David Martill and Leslie Noè, due to its distinct set of features not present in contemporary pliosaurids ''Liopleurodon'' and ''Simolestes.'' Description The type species, ''P. dawni'', is represented by a single near complete specimen (PETMG R338) which was approximately long. Perhaps the most defining feature of this genus is the large, pachyostic ribs and gastralia described as ‘sausage-like’ in profile. Pachyostosis is known from a number of Pliosaurid genera (for example ''Monquirasaurus''), and is present in modern animals such as Sirenians (Dugong and Manatees). This robust, barrel shap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Late Triassic
The Late Triassic is the third and final epoch (geology), epoch of the Triassic geologic time scale, Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between annum, Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch and followed by the Early Jurassic Epoch. The corresponding series (stratigraphy), series of rock beds is known as the Upper Triassic. The Late Triassic is divided into the Carnian, Norian and Rhaetian Geologic time scale, ages. Many of the first dinosaurs evolved during the Late Triassic, including ''Plateosaurus'', ''Coelophysis'', ''Herrerasaurus'', and ''Eoraptor''. The Triassic–Jurassic extinction event began during this epoch and is one of the five major mass extinction events of the Earth. Etymology The Triassic was named in 1834 by Friedrich August von Namoh, Friedrich von Alberti, after a succession of three distinct rock layers (Greek meaning 'triad') that are widespread in southern Germany: the lower Buntsandstein (colourful ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger B
Roger is a masculine given name, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic languages">Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") and ', ' ("spear", "lance") (Hrōþigēraz). The name was introduced into England by the Normans. In Normandy, the Franks, Frankish name had been reinforced by the Old Norse cognate '. The name introduced into England replaced the Old English cognate '. ''Roger'' became a very common given name during the Middle Ages. A variant form of the given name ''Roger'' that is closer to the name's origin is '' Rodger''. Slang and other uses From up to , Roger was slang for the word "penis". In ''Under Milk Wood'', Dylan Thomas writes "jolly, rodgered" suggesting both the sexual double entendre and the pirate term "Jolly Roger". In 19th-century England, Roger was slang for another term, the cloud of toxic green gas that swept through the chlori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kronosaurus
''Kronosaurus'' ( ) is an extinct genus of large short-necked pliosaur that lived during the Aptian to Albian Stage (stratigraphy), stages of the Early Cretaceous in what is now Australia. The first known specimen was received in 1899 and consists of a partially preserved mandibular symphysis, which was first thought to come from an ichthyosaur according to Charles Walter De Vis, Charles De Vis. However, it was 1924 that Albert Heber Longman formally described this specimen as the holotype of an imposing pliosaurid, to which he gave the scientific name ''K. queenslandicus'', which is still the only recognized species nowadays. The genus name, meaning "lizard of Cronus, Kronos", refers to its large size and possible ferocity reminiscent of the Titans, Titan of the Greek mythology, while the species name alludes to Queensland, the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of its discovery. In the early 1930s, the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology sent an Harvard Aust ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brachauchenius
''Brachauchenius'' (meaning 'short neck') is an extinct genus of pliosaurs that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what are now North America and North Africa. Only one species is known, ''B. lucasi'', initially described by Samuel Wendell Williston in 1903 from a partial fossil skeleton discovered in a quarry in Kansas, United States. Many other fossil specimens attributed to the species were subsequently discovered, including an individual from Morocco whose presence was made official in 2016. Many contemporary pliosaur specimens were formerly attributed to ''Brachauchenius'', but have since been reidentified as belonging to other genera or are recognized as Incertae sedis, indeterminate. Research history Holotype and naming In 1884, a partial skeleton of a marine reptile was discovered by the owner of a quarry near Delphos, Kansas, Delphos, in Ottawa County, Kansas. News of this find thus reached Charles H. Sternberg, who was then collecting fossils for Othniel Charles Marsh. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acostasaurus
''Acostasaurus'' (meaning " Acosta's lizard") is an extinct genus of possibly Thalassophonean pliosaurid known from the Barremian of the Paja Formation, Colombia. The type specimen, UNDG R-1000, is known from a near complete skull, and postcranial elements including a complete hindlimb and various vertebrae.Marcela Gómez Pérez; Leslie F. Noè (2017). "Cranial anatomy of a new pliosaurid ''Acostasaurus pavachoquensis'' from the Lower Cretaceous of Colombia, South America". Palaeontographica Abteilung A. 310 (1–2): 5–42. . The specimen has an estimated size of over in length. Description The type specimen is noted for possessing several features that pertain to a subadult individual: for example, the sagittal crest is not fully ossified, as well as possessing undeveloped palatine wings. It is possible however that ''Acostasaurus'', like other plesiosaurs, was paedomorphic. From what is preserved, the orbits are large, rounded and deeply notched dorsally. The sclerotic rin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pliosaurus
''Pliosaurus'' (meaning 'more lizard') is an extinct genus of thalassophonean pliosaurid known from the Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian and Tithonian stages) of Europe and South America. This genus has contained many species in the past but recent reviews found only six (''P. brachydeirus'' (type species), ''P. carpenteri'', ''P. funkei'', ''P. kevani'', ''P. rossicus'' and ''P. westburyensis'') to be definitively valid. One Patagonian species ''P. patagonicus'' likely belongs to a different genus within Brachaucheninae. Currently, ''P. brachyspondylus'' and ''P. macromerus'' are considered dubious, while ''P. portentificus'' is considered undiagnostic. Most European species of ''Pliosaurus'' would have measured around long and weighed over , though some potential specimens indicate a much larger size. Species of this genus are differentiated from other pliosaurids based on seven autapomorphies, including teeth that are triangular in cross section. Their diet would have include ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peloneustes
''Peloneustes'' (meaning ) is a genus of pliosaurid plesiosaur from the Middle Jurassic of England. Its remains are known from the Peterborough Member of the Oxford Clay Formation, which is Callovian in age. It was originally described as a species of ''Plesiosaurus'' by palaeontologist Harry Govier Seeley in 1869, before being given its own genus by naturalist Richard Lydekker in 1889. While many species have been assigned to ''Peloneustes'', ''P. philarchus'' is currently the only one still considered valid, with the others moved to different genera, considered ''nomina dubia'', or Synonym (taxonomy), synonymised with ''P. philarchus''. Some of the material formerly assigned to ''P. evansi'' has since been reassigned to "Pliosaurus" andrewsi, "''Pliosaurus''" ''andrewsi''. ''Peloneustes'' is known from many specimens, including some very complete material. With a total length of , ''Peloneustes'' is not a large pliosaurid. It had a large, triangular skull, which occupied abou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simolestes
''Simolestes'' (meaning "snub-nosed thief") is an extinct pliosaurid genus that lived in the Middle to Late Jurassic. The type specimen, NHMUK PV R 3319 is an almost complete but crushed skeleton diagnostic to ''Simolestes vorax'', dating back to the Callovian of the Oxford Clay formation, England. The genus might also be known from the Tithonian Bhuj Formation of India (''S.indicus''), however the referral of this species to ''Simolestes'' is dubious. ''S.keileni'' from France was moved to the new genus ''Lorrainosaurus'' in 2023. Description ''Simolestes'' possessed a short, high, and wide skull which was built to resist torsion (mechanics), torsional forces when hunting. The largest specimens of ''S. vorax'' reached approximately in length, if a head to body ratio similar to ''Liopleurodon'' is applied. Palaeobiology Like most pliosaurs, ''Simolestes'' possessed salt glands, salt secreting glands, which would have enabled the animal to maintain salt balance and drink seaw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Megalneusaurus
''Megalneusaurus'' is an extinct genus of large pliosaurs that lived during the Oxfordian and Kimmeridgian stages of the Late Jurassic in what is now North America. It was provisionally described as a species of '' Cimoliosaurus'' by the geologist Wilbur Clinton Knight in 1895, before being given its own genus by the same author in 1898. The only species identified to date is ''M. rex'', known from several specimens identified in the Redwater Shale Member, within the Sundance Formation, Wyoming, United States. A specimen discovered in the Naknek Formation in southern Alaska was referred to the genus in 1994, without a specific assignment. The binominal name literally means "king of large swimming lizards", due to the measurement of the fossils of the holotype specimen. Estimated to be around long, ''Megalneusaurus'' is one of the largest known North American pliosaur. As its name suggests, the genus was considered the largest sauropterygian identified before the discovery of s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liopleurodon
''Liopleurodon'' (; meaning 'smooth-sided teeth') is an extinct genus of carnivorous pliosaurid pliosaurs that lived from the Callovian stage of the Middle Jurassic to the Kimmeridgian stage of the Late Jurassic period (c. 166 to 155 mya). The type species is ''L. ferox'', which is probably the only valid species. Some studies also include the second species ''L. pachydeirus'', but this latter is considered as a probable junior synonym of ''L. ferox'' due to its lack of viable diagnosis. Fossils attributed to ''Liopleurodon'', including some skeletons, are mainly known from Europe, with one occurrence reported in Mexico. As the holotype specimen of ''L. ferox'' consists of a single tooth preserving questionable distinctive features, recent studies therefore recommend the necessary identification of a neotype in order to preserve its validity. Other additional species were even proposed, but these are currently seen as coming from other pliosaurid genera. ''Liopleurodon'' is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ischyrodon
''Ischyrodon'' (meaning 'strong tooth') is a nomen dubium, dubious genus of large pliosaurid plesiosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Switzerland. The only known species is ''I. meriani'', originally mentioned in 1838 by Hermann von Meyer from a large tooth discovered in Wölflinswil, before being first described in detail by the same author in 1856. The taxon remained Valid name (zoology), valid until 1889, when Richard Lydekker synonymized it with a large species of ''Pliosaurus''. However, in 1960, Beverly Halstead, Lambert Beverly Tarlo noted that the tooth shares more similarities with those of ''Liopleurodon'', instead considering it as a Synonym (taxonomy), synonym of this latter, a view that was later largely followed in scientific literature. However, a 2022 revision found few differences that would allow it to be distinguished from ''Liopleurodon'' and other thalassophonean pliosaurids, then considering it as a ''nomen dubium''. Research history The only known specimen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
