Dino card No. 1124 of 2,027

Makhaira

Say it: mah-KYE-rah

Name means: “blade with a curved outline, from Ancient Greek”1

Ate: MeatPlesiosaursEarly CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Makhaira was a fierce marine reptile that swam in the ancient seas of Russia about 130 million years ago. It had special teeth that were shaped like blades and had tiny saw-like edges, perfect for slicing through big prey.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

133 to 126 million years ago3

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia, along the banks of the Volga River1

Food

Meat2 3

Length

4 to 6 m1

estimated based on related pliosaurids

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 6 dogs nose to tailas long as 33 bananas end to end

How big was Makhaira compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Makhaira's teeth had serrated edges with tiny bumps that were taller than they were wide, making them look like a saw blade.1

Its tooth sockets were arranged in pairs, which is unusual for pliosaurids.1

Makhaira is the oldest known member of the brachauchenine group of pliosaurids from the Cretaceous period.1

The teeth of Makhaira look very similar to those of metriorhynchid crocodylomorphs, which were ancient crocodile-like reptiles.2

Makhaira lived about 130 million years ago during the Hauterivian stage of the Early Cretaceous.2 3

Only a partial skeleton of Makhaira has been found, including parts of the skull, teeth, vertebrae, and hip bones.1

AI-made picture of Makhaira — An AI-made picture of how Makhaira 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: Makhaira
Named by: Fischer et al. 20153
Group: Plesiosaurs
Family / clade: Pliosauridae3
Classification: Plesiosauria > Pliosauridae > Sauropterygia3
Age of the rocks: 133 to 126 million years (Hauterivian)3
Countries: Russia3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Makhaira was named in 2015 by a team of scientists including V. Fischer, based on a partial skeleton found in pyrite nodules along the Volga River in Russia.3 1
Still debated: Scientists are still debating whether Makhaira's serrated teeth mean it was more like Jurassic pliosaurids or if it was a unique early brachauchenine.1

Where the facts come from

Peculiar macrophagous adaptations in a new Cretaceous pliosaurid (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Makhaira rossica (en.wikipedia.org)
Makhaira 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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