Stratesaurus

Genus:

Stratesaurus

Genus author:

Benson, Evans and Druckenmiller (2012)

Classification:

Stratesaurus

Age:

Early Jurassic (Early Hettangian)

Location:

Somerset, UK

Referred material (sp.):

None

Type species:

Stratesaurus taylori

Species:

S. taylori

Species author:

Benson, Evans and Druckenmiller (2012)

Type specimen:

OUMNH J.10337, skull and partial postcranium

Age:

Lower Hettangian

Geological formation:

Type location:

Street, Somerset, UK

Referred material:

AGT 11, a skull; GSM 26035, a skull

Stratesaurus is a very small-bodied basal plesiosaur known from the lowermost Jurassic (Blue Lias Formation) of Street, Somerset .

Stratesaurus is represented by three specimens. The holotype specimen (OUMNH J.10337) was named and briefly described by Benson, Evans and Druckenmiller (2012), and later described in detail along with two referred specimens by Benson, Evans and Taylor (2015).

The genus contains a single species, Stratesaurus taylori. The genus name comes from ‘Strate’, the name for Street as recorded in the Doomesday Book. The species name honours palaeontologist Michael A. Taylor, who conducted preparation on the specimen, and was involved in its description (but not in its naming!).

Stratesaurus possesses the following diagnostic characters:

Very small adult body size (the skull is 18cm long, so I would estimate the total body length at about 2m)

Five alveoli in each premaxilla

19–21 alveoli in each maxilla

Maxilla lacks rostral constriction

Prominent and posteriorly projecting processes on posterolateral surfaces of anterior cervical prezyga pophyses (autapomorphy)

Pectoral centra proportionally short (a length:anterior height ratio of 0.7) (autapomorphy)

S. taylori is the type and only species of Stratesaurus.