Dino card No. 0524 of 2,027

Discosaurus

Say it: dis-koh-SORE-us

Name means: “disc lizard”1

Ate: MeatPlesiosaursLate CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Discosaurus was a big, long-necked marine reptile that swam in the warm seas of Alabama and Mississippi about 85 million years ago. It was a plesiosaur, not a dinosaur, and it used its four flippers to paddle through the water like a sea monster.1 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

86 to 84 million years ago4

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Alabama and Mississippi, USA1 2

Food

Meat2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Discosaurus was first named in 1851 by the famous paleontologist Joseph Leidy, based on a single vertebra found in Alabama.1 3

The name Discosaurus means 'disc lizard', because its vertebrae look like flat discs.1

Only one species of Discosaurus is known, called Discosaurus vetustus.1

Discosaurus lived during the Santonian stage of the Late Cretaceous, about 85.7 to 83.6 million years ago.2

The holotype of Discosaurus consists of eleven vertebrae, which were discovered by Joseph Jones in Alabama and Mississippi.1

Some scientists think Discosaurus might actually be the same animal as Elasmosaurus or Cimoliasaurus, but others disagree.1

Discosaurus was a plesiosaur, a group of marine reptiles that had long necks and four flippers.1

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

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Discosaurus
Named by: Leidy 18514
Group: Plesiosaurs
Family / clade: Pliosauridae4
Classification: Plesiosauria > Pliosauridae > Sauropterygia4
Age of the rocks: 86 to 84 million years (Santonian)4
Rock formations: Eutaw4
Countries: USA4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Discosaurus was named and described by Joseph Leidy in 1851, based on a single vertebra found by Joseph Jones in Alabama.1 3
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if Discosaurus is a valid genus or if it should be considered the same as Elasmosaurus or Cimoliasaurus.1

Where the facts come from

Discosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Cimoliasaurus (oceansofkansas.com)
Discosaurus 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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