Dino card No. 1169 of 2,027

Merriamosaurus

Say it: MER-ee-uh-MORE-sore-us

Name means: “Merriam's lizard”1

Ate: MeatIchthyosaursEarly Triassic to Middle TriassicNot technically a dinosaur

Merriamosaurus was an ancient marine reptile that swam in the seas around what is now Svalbard, Norway, about 248 million years ago. It was a type of ichthyosaur, a dolphin-like reptile that breathed air but lived in the water. Merriamosaurus was a top predator, hunting fish and other sea creatures.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

249 to 247 million years ago3

Early Triassic to Middle Triassic

Fossils found in

Svalbard and Jan Mayen (Spitsbergen, Norway)1

Food

Meat1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Merriamosaurus was named in 2002 by scientists Maisch and Matzke.1

It lived during the Spathian stage of the Early Triassic, about 248 to 247 million years ago.1

Merriamosaurus was a basal longipinnate ichthyosaur, meaning it had long flippers and was an early relative of more advanced ichthyosaurs.2

It was the most derived of the Lower Triassic ichthyosaurs known at the time of its description.2

Merriamosaurus gave birth to live young, like many other ichthyosaurs.1

Its fossils were found in the Sticky Keep Formation on Spitsbergen.1 2

AI-made picture of Merriamosaurus — An AI-made picture of how Merriamosaurus 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: Merriamosaurus
Named by: Maisch and Matzke 20023
Group: Ichthyosaurs
Family / clade: Merriamosauridae3
Classification: Ichthyosauria > Ichthyosauromorpha3
Age of the rocks: 249 to 247 million years ()3
Rock formations: Sticky Keep3
Countries: Svalbard3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Merriamosaurus was first described from isolated bones, but later more complete skeletons were found in the Sticky Keep Formation of Spitsbergen. It was named by Michael W. Maisch and Andreas T. Matzke in 2002.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure about the exact size of Merriamosaurus because only partial skeletons have been found.2

Where the facts come from

PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Observations on Triassic ichthyosaurs. Part IX. The first associated skeletal remains of Merriamosaurus n. g. (Ichthyosauria, Lower Triassic) and their bearing on the systematic position of the Omphalosauria (researchgate.net)
Merriamosaurus 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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