Temporal range: Late Triassic - Late Cretaceous, 210–66 Ma
PreꞒ
Ꞓ
O
S
D
C
P
T
J
K
Pg
N
Life restoration of Elasmosaurus
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Reptilia
Superorder:
†Sauropterygia
Order:
†Plesiosauria
Clade:
†Neoplesiosauria
Superfamily:
†Plesiosauroidea Gray, 1825
Subgroups
†Eoplesiosaurus
†Franconiasaurus[1]
†Plesiopharos
†Cryptoclidia
†Microcleididae
†Plesiosauridae
Plesiosauroidea (/ˈpliːsiəsɔːr/; Greek: πλησιοςplēsios 'near, close to' and σαυροςsauros 'lizard') is an extinct clade of carnivorous marine reptiles. They have the snake-like longest neck to body ratio of any reptile. Plesiosauroids are known from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. After their discovery, some plesiosauroids were said to have resembled "a snake threaded through the shell of a turtle",[2] although they had no shell.
Plesiosauroidea appeared at the Early Jurassic Period (late Sinemurian stage) and thrived until the K-Pg extinction, at the end of the Cretaceous Period. The oldest confirmed plesiosauroid is Plesiosaurus itself, as all younger taxa were recently found to be pliosauroids.[3] While they were Mesozoic diapsid reptiles that lived at the same time as dinosaurs, they did not belong to the latter. Gastroliths are frequently found associated with plesiosaurs.[4]
^Sachs, Sven; Eggmaier, Stefan; Madzia, Daniel (2024). "Exquisite skeletons of a new transitional plesiosaur fill gap in the evolutionary history of plesiosauroids". Frontiers in Earth Science. 12 (in press). doi:10.3389/feart.
^Everhart, Mike (2005-10-14). "A Snake Drawn Through the Shell of a Turtle". Oceans of Kansas Paleontology. Retrieved 2010-06-10.
^Ketchum, Hilary F.; Benson, Roger B. J. (2011). "A new pliosaurid (Sauropterygia, Plesiosauria) from the Oxford Clay Formation (Middle Jurassic, Callovian) of England: evidence for a gracile, longirostrine grade of Early-Middle Jurassic pliosaurids". Special Papers in Palaeontology. 86: 109–129.
^Cite error: The named reference cedaro-gast-occ-168 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
Plesiosauroidea (/ˈpliːsiəsɔːr/; Greek: πλησιος plēsios 'near, close to' and σαυρος sauros 'lizard') is an extinct clade of carnivorous marine reptiles...
London, 52, 246–253. Brown, D. S. 1981. "The English Upper Jurassic Plesiosauroidea (Reptilia) and a review of the phylogeny and classification of the...
strict division of the Plesiosauria into two suborders, the long-necked Plesiosauroidea and the short-neck Pliosauroidea. Modern research, however, indicates...
Microcleidus is an extinct genus of sauropterygian reptile belonging to the Plesiosauroidea. The species has 40 neck vertebrae and a short tail of 28 vertebrae...
preservation and ontogeny. He divided plesiosaurs into two superfamilies, the Plesiosauroidea and Pliosauroidea, based on neck length, head size, ischium length...
preservation and ontogeny. He divided plesiosaurs into two superfamilies, the Plesiosauroidea and Pliosauroidea, based on neck length, head size, ischium length...
(2004b). "New data regarding the skull of Dolichorhynchops osborni (Plesiosauroidea: Polycotylidae) from rediscovered photos of the Harvard Museum of Comparative...
analyses recover Rhomaleosauridae as pliosauroids, to the exclusion of Plesiosauroidea, either as the sister taxon of Pliosauridae or, rarely, as a paraphyletic...
Retrieved 2008-04-22. Brown, David S.; 1981b; The English Upper Jurassic Plesiosauroidea (Reptilia) and a review of the phylogeny and classification of the...
closely related to true plesiosaurs (which belong to the superfamily Plesiosauroidea). Polycotylus and other polycotylids superficially resemble pliosaurs...
a broad flat body, a short tail, and strong flippers. Most of the Plesiosauroidea group are identified by their long necks, while Pliosauroidea are usually...
needed] Plesiopharos moelensis is classified as a basal member of Plesiosauroidea. Plesiopharos moelensis was discovered at Praia da Concha, São Pedro...
(Plesiosauroidea incertae sedis) del Cretácico Tardío de la Formación Quiriquina, Cocholgüe, Chile" [New record of Aristonectes sp. (Plesiosauroidea incertae...
ecosystem. Plesiosaurs are present from two different families within Plesiosauroidea in the Niobrara Chalk: the Polycotylidae, or short-necked plesiosaurs...
postcranial skeleton A marine sauropterygian, type member of the family Plesiosauroidea inside Plesiosauria. A juvenile specimen that resembles those assigned...
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