Dino card No. 0194 of 2,027

Attenborosaurus

Say it: at-TEN-bor-oh-SORE-us

Name means: “Attenborough's lizard”1 2

Ate: FishPlesiosaursEarly JurassicNot technically a dinosaur

Attenborosaurus was a plesiosaur, a marine reptile that lived in the sea, not a dinosaur. It had a long neck, a round body, and four flippers to paddle through warm, tropical waters. This animal is named after the famous broadcaster Sir David Attenborough.2

Fun fact: this sea reptile swam while dinosaurs walked on land. Everyone calls them dinos, but they were a different branch of reptiles.

Lived

200 to 193 million years ago3

Early Jurassic

Fossils found in

Dorset, England, along the Jurassic Coast1 2

Food

Fish1

Length

4.3 m1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

as long as 2.5 bicycles in a rowas long as 24 bananas end to end

How big was Attenborosaurus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

The original fossil was destroyed in 1940 during World War II when a bomb hit the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery.1 2

A plaster cast of the skeleton was made before the war, and it is now the main specimen at the Natural History Museum in London.1 2

Attenborosaurus lived about 190 million years ago during the Early Jurassic period.2

It was first thought to be a species of Plesiosaurus, but in 1993 paleontologist Robert Bakker gave it its own genus.1 2

Skin impressions found with the bones suggest it had smooth, membranous skin without large scales, which helped it swim faster.1

The species name conybeari honors geologist William Conybeare.1

AI-made picture of Attenborosaurus — An AI-made picture of how Attenborosaurus might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

you asked

Most asked questions about Attenborosaurus

?How big was Attenborosaurus?

About 4.3 metres (14 feet) long.1

?What did Attenborosaurus eat?

It ate fish, like most other plesiosaurs.1

?Was Attenborosaurus a dinosaur?

No, it was a marine reptile called a plesiosaur, not a dinosaur.2

?Why is it called Attenborosaurus?

It is named after Sir David Attenborough, the famous broadcaster.1 2

?When did Attenborosaurus live?

It lived about 190 million years ago, during the Early Jurassic period.2

?Where was Attenborosaurus found?

Its fossils were found in Dorset, England, on the Jurassic Coast.1 2

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Attenborosaurus
Named by: Bakker 19933
Group: Plesiosaurs
Family / clade: Pliosauridae3
Classification: Plesiosauria > Pliosauridae > Sauropterygia3
Age of the rocks: 200 to 193 million years (Sinemurian)3
Rock formations: Charmouth Mudstone3
Countries: United Kingdom3
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: The first fossils were found in Charmouth, Dorset, England in 1880. William Johnson Sollas described them in 1881, naming the animal Plesiosaurus conybeari. In 1993, Robert Bakker renamed it Attenborosaurus after Sir David Attenborough.1 2

Where the facts come from

Attenborosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Attenborosaurus: a celebrity reptile | Natural History Museum (nhm.ac.uk)
Attenborosaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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