Dino card No. 0710 of 2,027

Georgiasaurus

Say it: JOR-jee-uh-SORE-us

Name means: “Georgy's lizard”1

Ate: MeatPlesiosaursLate CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Georgiasaurus was a plesiosaur, a marine reptile that swam in the seas of ancient Russia. It had a short neck, a long snout, and four flippers like paddles. It was a fast swimmer that chased fish and other prey.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

86 to 84 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Zatolokino Village, Penza Province, Russia1 2

Food

Meat3 1

Length

4 to 5 m1

Weight

450 kg1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 15 big dogs

as long as 5 dogs nose to tailas long as 28 bananas end to endas heavy as 90 watermelons

How big was Georgiasaurus compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Georgiasaurus was a polycotylid, a type of plesiosaur with a short neck and a long head, built for speed.1

The first fossil was a nearly complete skeleton, but it was damaged when workers cut the stone around it.1

Its name was first 'Georgia', but that name was already used for a snake, so scientists changed it to Georgiasaurus.1

Georgiasaurus lived about 85 to 83 million years ago, during the Santonian stage of the Late Cretaceous.2

Scientists think Georgiasaurus gave birth to live young, like many other plesiosaurs.2

The type specimen, POKM 11658, includes seven neck vertebrae, shoulder blades, and two flippers.1 2

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

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: Georgiasaurus
Named by: Ochev 19773
Group: Plesiosaurs
Family / clade: Polycotylidae3
Classification: Plesiosauria > Sauropterygia3
Age of the rocks: 86 to 84 million years (Santonian)3
Countries: Russia3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Russian paleontologist V. A. Otschev (also spelled Ochev) named Georgiasaurus in 1976. He first called it Georgia, after his father Georgy, but changed the name in 1977 because Georgia was already taken.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how fast Georgiasaurus could swim or whether it mainly hunted near the surface or in deeper water.2

Where the facts come from

Georgiasaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Georgiasaurus 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