Leptocleididae

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Skeleton of Brancasaurus in side view. From Sachs et al. (2016)

Skull of Brancasaurus in dorsal and lateral view, and showing the tip of the snout (C) in ventral view (from Wegner 1914)

Lower Cretaceous plesiosaurs are rare, so Leptocleidus is important because it fills a gap in the fossil record of plesiosaurians. Leptocleidus was once considered to be a late surviving member of the family Rhomaleosauridae but it has recently been reidentified as a close relative of polycotylids.

‘Gronausaurus‘ was named in 2013 (Hampe 2013). It is now regarded as a junior synonym of Brancasaurus (Sachs et al. 2016).

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Vectocleidus material on display in the Dinosaur Isle Museum, Isle of Wight, UK.