Paludidraco

Say it: pa-LOO-dee-DRAY-koh

Name means: “marshy dragon”1

Ate: PlantsOther sea reptilesLate TriassicNot technically a dinosaur

Paludidraco was a strange marine reptile that lived in shallow seas over 200 million years ago. It had a very heavy, dense skeleton that helped it stay underwater without swimming much, like a manatee. Its jaws were weak and filled with many tiny teeth, so it probably sucked up soft plants or small animals from the seafloor.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

237 to 206 million years ago3

Late Triassic

Fossils found in

El Atance site, Sigüenza, Guadalajara, Central Spain3 1

Food

Plants1 2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Paludidraco had an extremely heavy, pachyostotic skeleton, meaning its bones were very thick and dense. This helped it float at shallow depths without using much energy, just like modern manatees.2

Its jaws were very slender and weak, and its teeth were small, curved, and set in a groove (pleurodont implantation). This is very different from most other marine reptiles of its time.1

Paludidraco had more than 15 teeth in its premaxilla (the front part of the upper jaw), which is a unique feature among its family, Simosauridae.1

Scientists think Paludidraco was not an active predator. Its weak jaws could not catch struggling prey, and its heavy body made it slow and not very maneuverable.1

The name Paludidraco comes from Latin words meaning 'marshy dragon', because its fossils were found near a reservoir called El Atance in Spain.1

Paludidraco lived during the Late Triassic period, about 237 to 205 million years ago, in what is now central Spain.3

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

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: Paludidraco
Named by: de Miguel Chaves et al. 20183
Group: Other sea reptiles
Family / clade: Simosauridae3
Classification: Nothosauria > Sauropterygia3
Age of the rocks: 237 to 206 million years (Carnian / Norian)3
Rock formations: Keuper3
Countries: Spain3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Paludidraco multidentatus was named in 2018 by scientists de Miguel Chaves, Ortega, and Pérez-García. They described it from two well-preserved skeletons found at the El Atance site in central Spain.3 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure whether Paludidraco was a true filter feeder like some whales, or if it used its comb-like teeth to scrape soft plants from the seafloor. Its skull lacks some features seen in modern filter feeders.1

Where the facts come from

New highly pachyostotic nothosauroid interpreted as a filter ... (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
New highly pachyostotic nothosauroid interpreted as a filter-feeding Triassic (royalsocietypublishing.org)
Paludidraco 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