| Megalneusaurus Fossil range: Late Jurassic | |
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 Megalneusaurus | |
| Scientific classification
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Megalneusaurus | |
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Megalneusaurus is an extinct genus of large pliosaur that lived in the Sundance Sea during the Kimmeridgian, ~156-152 million years ago, in the Late Jurassic. The genus and type species was based upon ribs, vertebrae, a fore-paddle and fragments of the pectoral girdle discovered in Wyoming, USA in 1895.[1] The species named as Megalneusaurus rex (meaning "great swimming lizard King") in 1898.[2]
However some of this material has since been lost, although new material has been discovered from the same site.[3] Based upon the bones very large size, it appears to have grown to a size comparable to Liopleurodon.
Material from southern Alaska have been referred to Megalneusaurus, although this material is from an individual of much smaller size.[4]
References[]
- ^ Knight WC. 1895 A new Jurassic plesiosaur from Wyoming. Science 2: 449.
- ^ Knight WC. 1898. Some new Jurassic vertebrates from Wyoming. American Journal of Science 4: 378-381.
- ^ Wahl WR, Ross M, Massare JA. 2007. Rediscovery of Wilbur Knight’s Megalneusaurus rex site: new material from an old pit. Paludicola 6 (2): 94-104.
- ^ Weems RE, Blodgett RB. 1996. The pliosaurid Megalneusaurus: a newly recognized occurrence in the Upper Jurassic Neknek Formation of the Alaska Peninsula. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 2152: 169-175.