Pantosaurus
Pantosaurus was a long-necked marine reptile that swam in a shallow sea that once covered part of North America. It was not a dinosaur, but a plesiosaur, a type of ocean predator. It used its four flippers to glide through the water and catch fish and other prey.12
When did it live?
Fun facts
Pantosaurus had a very long neck with between 35 and 40 neck bones, called cervical vertebrae. These bones were almost as long as they were wide, which helped make the neck flexible.3
The name Pantosaurus was originally 'Parasaurus', but that name was already used for another animal, so scientists changed it.1
Pantosaurus lived in the Sundance Sea, a shallow ocean that covered parts of Wyoming millions of years ago.1
Scientists think Pantosaurus might have given birth to live young, not laid eggs, because it lived in the water.2
The front flippers of Pantosaurus were special: the radius bone was much longer and broader than the ulna, which helped it steer in the water.3
A fossil of a baby ichthyosaur (a different marine reptile) was found inside a Pantosaurus stomach, showing it ate other marine reptiles.1
Most asked questions about Pantosaurus
?What did Pantosaurus eat?
Pantosaurus ate fish and other marine reptiles. A fossil of a baby ichthyosaur was found inside a Pantosaurus stomach, showing it ate ichthyosaurs.13
?How big was Pantosaurus?
Pantosaurus was a small plesiosaur, but its exact size is not known from the sources. It had a very long neck with 35 to 40 neck bones.13
?When did Pantosaurus live?
Pantosaurus lived during the Late Jurassic period, about 163 to 157 million years ago.14
?Was Pantosaurus a dinosaur?
No, Pantosaurus was not a dinosaur. It was a plesiosaur, a type of marine reptile that lived in the ocean.1
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Myth buster
Myth: Some people think Pantosaurus was a dinosaur because it lived in the same time as dinosaurs.
Truth: Pantosaurus was a plesiosaur, a marine reptile, not a dinosaur. Dinosaurs lived on land, while Pantosaurus swam in the sea.1
For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Pantosaurus
- Named by
- Marsh 18934
- Group
- Plesiosaurs
- Family / clade
- Cryptoclididae4
- Classification
- Plesiosauria > Sauropterygia4
- Age of the rocks
- 162 to 155 million years (Oxfordian)4
- Rock formations
- Sundance4
- Countries
- USA4
- Fossil records
- 6 in the Paleobiology Database4
- Also known as
- Parasaurus (older names now counted as the same animal)4
- Discovery
- Pantosaurus was first found in Wyoming in the late 1800s by Othniel Charles Marsh. He named it Parasaurus in 1891, but changed the name to Pantosaurus in 1893 because the old name was already taken.13
- Still debated
- Scientists still debate whether some fossils belong to Pantosaurus or to another similar plesiosaur, because the skull is not known.3
Where the facts come from
- Pantosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
- PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
- Current Taxonomic Status of the Plesiosaur Pantasaurus Striatus from the Upper Jurassic Sundance Formation, Wyoming (mds.marshall.edu)
- Pantosaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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