Dino card No. 0461 of 2,027

Cryonectes

Say it: KRY-oh-NEK-teez

Name means: “cold swimmer”1

Ate: MeatPlesiosaursEarly JurassicNot technically a dinosaur

Cryonectes was a marine reptile that lived in the Early Jurassic seas, about 185 to 183 million years ago. It was a pliosaur, a type of plesiosaur with a big head and a short neck, built to hunt other sea creatures. Its fossils were found in Normandy, France.1 3

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

Lived

193 to 184 million years ago3

Early Jurassic

Fossils found in

Roche-Blain quarry, Fresney-le-Puceux, near Laize-la-Ville, Normandy, France3 1

Food

Meat3 1

Length

3 to 4 m1 2

estimated from skull length (47 cm) and comparison to other pliosaurids; subadult specimen

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 4 dogs nose to tailas long as 22 bananas end to end

How big was Cryonectes compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

cool stuff

Fun facts

Cryonectes is known from a partial skull, lower jaw, and ten vertebrae, which were collected in the 1980s from a quarry in France.1

Its skull is about 47 centimeters (19 inches) long, making it a moderate-sized pliosaurid.1

The name Cryonectes means 'cold swimmer' because it lived during a cool period in the Early Jurassic.1

Cryonectes was a subadult when it died, as shown by its vertebrae having open growth plates.1

Its snout is very long, and the lower jaw has a long symphysis (where the two halves meet) with seven tooth positions.1

Scientists think Cryonectes is one of the earliest pliosaurids, helping to show that pliosaurids evolved earlier than previously thought.2

AI-made picture of Cryonectes — An AI-made picture of how Cryonectes 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.

Ask Rex about Cryonectes

Rex only answers questions about this page. 3 questions a day.

Rex is an AI and can make mistakes. He runs on servers in the EU and questions are never saved. Never type your name or other personal things.

For dino experts

Scientific name: Cryonectes
Named by: Vincent et al. 20133
Group: Plesiosaurs
Family / clade: Pliosauridae3
Classification: Plesiosauria > Pliosauridae > Sauropterygia3
Age of the rocks: 193 to 184 million years (Pliensbachian)3
Rock formations: Calcaire à Bélemnites3
Countries: France3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Cryonectes was named in 2012 by Peggy Vincent, Nathalie Bardet, and Emanuela Mattioli based on a fossil found in the 1980s in Normandy, France. The fossil was stored at the Musée de l’Agglomération d’Elbeuff in Elbeuf-sur-Seine.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are still debating exactly where Cryonectes fits in the pliosaur family tree, though it is thought to be a basal (early) pliosaurid.1 2

Where the facts come from

Cryonectes (en.wikipedia.org)
A new pliosaurid from the Pliensbachian, Early Jurassic of Normandy, Northern France - Acta Palaeontologica Polonica (app.pan.pl)
Cryonectes 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.

Rex is hungry! Dino Wiki is a dad's project for his dino-loving son, free with no ads. Grown-ups can feed Rex a snack to help keep it online.Feed Rex