Vinialesaurus

Vinialesaurus Fossil range: Late Jurassic
Scientific classification
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Sauropterygia
Order:	Plesiosauria
Suborder:	Plesiosauroidea
Family:	Cryptoclididae
Genus:	Vinialesaurus
Species:	V. caroli (type) De la Torre & Rojas, 1949/Gasparini et al., 2002

Vinialesaurus is an extinct genus of plesiosaur from the Late Jurassic (Oxfordian) of what is now Cuba. The type species is Vinialesaurus caroli, first described as Cryptocleidus caroli by De la Torre and Rojas in 1949, and redescribed by Gasparini, Bardet and Iturralde in 2002. The authors of the 2002 paper considered Vinialesaurus distinct enough from Cryptocleidus to warrant its own genus, but it was broadly similar to Cryptocleidus.

The name Vinialesaurus honors Viñales, the town in western Cuba where the fossils of Vinialesaurus was discovered. These fossils consist of a mostly complete skull, jaw, and portions of the vertebrae.

ReferencesEdit

• Gasparini, Z., Bardet, N., and Iturralde-Vinent, M. (2002). "A new cryptoclidid plesiosaur from the Oxfordian (Late Jurassic) of Cuba". Geobios 35(2): 201-211.

External linksEdit

• Vinialesaurus in the Plesiosaur site

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