Plesiosauria
Sign in to saveThe Plesiosauria or plesiosaurs are an order or clade of extinct Mesozoic marine reptiles, belonging to the Sauropterygia.
Article
32 sectionsContents
- History of discovery
- Early finds
- Naming of ''Plesiosaurus''
- American discoveries
- Recent discoveries
- Evolution
- Relationships
- Description
- Size
- Skeleton
- Soft tissues
- Paleobiology
- Food
- Locomotion
- Flipper movement
- Gait
- Speed
- Diving
- Tail role
- Metabolism
- Reproduction
- Social behavior and intelligence
- Paleopathology
- Distribution
- Timeline of Plesiosauria Species
- Stratigraphic distribution
- In contemporary culture
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Further reading
- External links
The Plesiosauria or plesiosaurs are an order or clade of extinct Mesozoic marine reptiles, belonging to the Sauropterygia.
Plesiosaurs first appeared in the latest Triassic Period, possibly in the Rhaetian stage, about 203 million years ago. They became especially common during the Jurassic Period, thriving until their disappearance due to the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous Period, about 66 million years ago. They had a worldwide oceanic distribution, and some species at least partly inhabited freshwater environments.