Dino card No. 0604 of 2,027

Eoplesiosaurus

Say it: ee-oh-PLEE-zee-oh-SORE-us

Name means: “dawn Plesiosaurus”1

Ate: MeatPlesiosaursEarly JurassicNot technically a dinosaur

Eoplesiosaurus was one of the very first plesiosaurs, swimming in the seas just after the Triassic-Jurassic extinction. It had a very long neck and four flippers, and it used them to paddle through the water and catch fish.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

201 to 200 million years ago3

Early Jurassic

Fossils found in

Watchet, Somerset, United Kingdom3 1

Food

Meat3

Length

2 to 3 m2

estimated from small body size of early plesiosaurs

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 3 dogs nose to tailas long as 17 bananas end to end

How big was Eoplesiosaurus compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Eoplesiosaurus is one of the oldest plesiosaurs ever found, living about 199 to 198 million years ago.1

Its neck was very long, with at least 38 neck bones, and its neck was longer than its body.1 2

The only fossil of Eoplesiosaurus is a complete skeleton from the neck down, found in the Blue Lias Formation in England.1

Eoplesiosaurus had small, cone-shaped bumps on the bases of its neck bones, which is a unique feature not seen in other plesiosaurs.1 2

It lived right after the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event, when many ocean animals died out and plesiosaurs began to take over the seas.2

Eoplesiosaurus was a small plesiosaur, with a body length of only about 2 to 3 metres (6.5 to 10 feet).2

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

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: Eoplesiosaurus
Named by: Benson et al. 20123
Group: Plesiosaurs
Family / clade: Plesiosauria3
Classification: Plesiosauria > Sauropterygia3
Age of the rocks: 201 to 200 million years (Hettangian)3
Rock formations: Blue Lias3
Countries: United Kingdom3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Eoplesiosaurus was named in 2012 by Roger Benson, Mark Evans and Patrick Druckenmiller. The only skeleton was found at Watchet in Somerset, England, in rocks from the earliest Jurassic.1 3
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how big Eoplesiosaurus grew, because only one skeleton has been found.1

Where the facts come from

Eoplesiosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
High Diversity, Low Disparity and Small Body Size in Plesiosaurs (Reptilia, Sauropterygia) from the Triassic, Jurassic Boundary | PLOS One (journals.plos.org)
Eoplesiosaurus 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