Liopleurodon

Post author:Adam S. Smith
Post published:22/07/2018
Post category:Genus page Liopleurodon Plesiosauria Pliosauridae Pliosauroidea

Mounted skeleton of Liopleurodon ferox in the Tubingen Museum, Germany (from Martill and Naish, 2000).

Liopleurodon is a pliosaur that hardly needs introduction since appearing as the villain in the BBC's 'Walking with Dinosaurs' TV series. This led to popular misconceptions about the size of Liopleurodon, which is known to have reached adult sizes in the region of seven metres long, nowhere near the gargantuan 25m estimate…

Kronosaurus

Post author:Adam S. Smith
Post published:22/07/2018
Post category:Genus page Kronosaurus Plesiosauria Pliosauridae Pliosauroidea Thalassophonea

Kronosaurus queenslandicus skeleton in lateral view.

Due to its large size and ferocious appearance, Kronosaurus is one of the most famous plesiosaurs. The iconic skeleton referred to Kronosaurus on display in the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Harvard is nicknamed 'plasterosaurus' because so much of it is reconstructed in plaster. About a third of the skeleton is plaster…

Attenborosaurus

Post author:Adam S. Smith
Post published:22/07/2018
Post category:Attenborosaurus Genus page Plesiosauria Pliosauridae Pliosauroidea

Photograph of the holotype of Attenborosaurus, before it was destroyed. The skeleton was mounted in a block together with a cast of the opposite side of the body and the opposite side of the head (from Swinton, 1949)

Attenborosaurus is an unusual plesiosaur because it combines a long neck with a relatively large head. It is classified as a pliosaur in some classifications, but some phylogenies place it in a more basal position. The genus was introduced for 'Plesiosaurus' conybeari, a species originally described by Sollas (1881). Bob Bakker coined…