Dino card No. 0363 of 2,027

Caypullisaurus

Say it: KAY-pull-ih-SORE-us

Name means: “Caypulli's lizard”4

Ate: MeatIchthyosaursLate Jurassic to Early CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Caypullisaurus was a large, dolphin-like marine reptile that swam in the warm seas of what is now Argentina. It had a long, slender snout and huge eyes to hunt fish and squid in the dark ocean.1

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

Lived

145 to 137 million years ago4

Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Neuquén Province, Argentina2

Food

Meat4

Length

4 to 5 m4

estimate based on related ichthyosaurs

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 5 dogs nose to tailas long as 28 bananas end to end

How big was Caypullisaurus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Caypullisaurus had four main fingers in its front flipper, made of tightly packed, many-sided bones, plus extra fingers on the front and back edges.1

Its eyes were very large, like those of Ophthalmosaurus, helping it see in dim water.1

Adult Caypullisaurus had weak or missing teeth, so it probably sucked in soft prey like squid.1

The only known skeleton is the most complete ichthyosaur ever found from the Jurassic of South America.1

Caypullisaurus lived about 145 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic period.4

Its fossils were found in the Vaca Muerta formation, a famous rock layer in Argentina that also holds many other marine reptiles.4

AI-made picture of Caypullisaurus — An AI-made picture of how Caypullisaurus 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 Caypullisaurus

?How big was Caypullisaurus?

It was about 7 metres (23 feet) long, which is roughly the length of a large bus.3

?What did Caypullisaurus eat?

It ate fish and squid. Adults had weak or missing teeth, so it probably sucked in soft prey like squid.3

?When did Caypullisaurus live?

It lived about 150 to 140 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous periods.3

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Caypullisaurus
Named by: Fernández 19974
Group: Ichthyosaurs
Family / clade: Ophthalmosauridae4
Classification: Ichthyosauria > Ichthyosauromorpha4
Age of the rocks: 145 to 137 million years (Tithonian / Berriasian)4
Rock formations: Vaca Muerta4
Countries: Argentina4
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Caypullisaurus was named by paleontologist M. S. Fernández in 1997, based on a nearly complete skeleton from the Neuquén Basin in Argentina.4 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how big Caypullisaurus grew, because only one skeleton has been found.4

Where the facts come from

A new ichthyosaur from the Tithonian (Late Jurassic) of the Neuquén Basin, northwestern Patagonia, Argentina (cambridge.org)
A new ichthyosaur from the Tithonian (Late Jurassic) of the Neuquen Basin, northwestern Patagonia, Argentina | Journal of Paleontology | GeoScienceWorld (pubs.geoscienceworld.org)
Caypullisaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Caypullisaurus 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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