The following label was found by Richard Forrest “in the collections of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History with J.28587, the holotype of Plesiosaurus macromus (Owen 1840)” He added the annotated image to the front page of his ‘The Plesiosaur Site’ around May 2014. I’m reposting it here under Richard’s name for posterity, backdated to May 2014. The hand-written label describes “Plesiosaurus” as follows: “The Plesiosaurus has the head of a Lizard, the teeth of a Crocodile, the neck has forty one vertebrae & resembles the body of a serpent, a trunk & tail having the proportions of an ordinary quadruped, the ribs of a Chamelion[sic], & the Paddles of a Whale.” The species Plesiosaurus macromus is today regarded as an (invalid) junior synonym of the valid taxon Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus. – Adam S. Smith, 20 May 2026
