Dino card No. 0669 of 2,027

Franconiasaurus

Say it: fran-KOH-nee-uh-SORE-us

Name means: “Franconia lizard, named after the Franconia region in Bavaria, Germany, where it was found”1

Ate: MeatPlesiosaursEarly JurassicNot technically a dinosaur

Franconiasaurus was a marine reptile that swam in the seas of what is now Germany about 175 million years ago. It had a mix of features from early and later plesiosaurs, making it a special link in their family tree.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

180 to 175 million years ago4

Early Jurassic

Fossils found in

Bavaria, Germany, specifically in the Mistelgau fossil pit in the Bayreuth District1

Food

Meat3

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Franconiasaurus lived about 175 million years ago, during a time called the late Toarcian stage of the Jurassic period.2

Its name 'brevispinus' means 'short spine', because the neural spines on its neck and back bones were low.1

Two nearly complete, three-dimensionally preserved skeletons were found, which is very rare for plesiosaurs.1

Franconiasaurus is considered a 'transitional' plesiosaur, meaning it had features of both early and later plesiosaurs, helping scientists understand how they evolved.2

It was a close relative of a group called Cryptoclidia, which includes many later plesiosaurs that lived in oceans around the world.2

The fossils were found in the Jurensismergel Formation, which is a layer of rock from the Jurassic period.1

AI-made picture of Franconiasaurus — An AI-made picture of how Franconiasaurus 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: Franconiasaurus
Named by: Sachs et al. 20244
Group: Plesiosaurs
Family / clade: Plesiosauroidea4
Classification: Plesiosauria > Sauropterygia4
Age of the rocks: 180 to 175 million years (Toarcian)4
Rock formations: Jurensismergel4
Countries: Germany4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Franconiasaurus was named by Sachs and colleagues in 2024. The fossils were dug up between 2005 and 2018 by a team from the Urwelt-Museum Oberfranken in a clay pit in Mistelgau, Germany.1
Still debated: Scientists are still studying the detailed anatomy of Franconiasaurus, and a full description is planned for a future project.1

Where the facts come from

Exquisite skeletons of a new transitional plesiosaur fill gap in the evolutionary history of plesiosauroids (dinodata.de)
Exquisite skeletons of a new transitional plesiosaur fill gap in the evolutionary history of plesiosauroids, Sachs Vertebrate Palaeontology Research (sachspal.de)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Franconiasaurus 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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