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Gengasaurus

Say it: GEN-gah-SORE-us

Name means: “Genga lizard”1

Ate: MeatIchthyosaursLate Jurassic to Early CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Gengasaurus was a fast-swimming marine reptile that lived in the warm Jurassic seas. It looked a bit like a dolphin but was actually an ichthyosaur, not a dinosaur. It had a long snout full of sharp teeth for catching fish and squid.3 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

155 to 143 million years ago3

Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Camponocecchio, Genga, Marche, Italy3 1

Food

Meat3

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Gengasaurus was named in 2017, but the fossil was actually discovered in 1976. It was called the 'Genga ichthyosaur' for many years before getting its official name.1

Two shark teeth from the order Hexanchiformes were found with the Gengasaurus fossil. Scientists think the sharks may have been scavenging on the dead ichthyosaur.2

Gengasaurus belongs to a group called Ophthalmosauridae, which means 'eye lizards'. These ichthyosaurs had very large eyes to see in dim water.3 2

The fossil was found in the Calcari ad aptici e Saccocoma Formation in Italy, which was once part of the warm Western Tethys Ocean.3 2

Gengasaurus lived about 152 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic period.1

AI-made picture of Gengasaurus — An AI-made picture of how Gengasaurus 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: Gengasaurus
Named by: Paparella et al. 20173
Group: Ichthyosaurs
Family / clade: Ophthalmosauridae3
Classification: Ichthyosauria > Ichthyosauromorpha3
Age of the rocks: 155 to 143 million years (Kimmeridgian / Tithonian)3
Rock formations: Calcari ad aptici e Saccocoma3
Countries: Italy3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: The nearly complete skeleton was discovered in 1976 at Camponocecchio, Italy. It was first described in 1980 and 2000 as the 'Genga ichthyosaur', and finally named Gengasaurus nicosiai by Paparella and colleagues in a paper published in 2017.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly where Gengasaurus fits in the ichthyosaur family tree. It shares features with both northern and southern hemisphere ophthalmosaurids, suggesting it may be a link between different groups.2

Where the facts come from

Gengasaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
The first ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaur from the Upper Jurassic of the Umbrian, Marchean Apennines (Marche, Central Italy) (cambridge.org)
Gengasaurus 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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