Dino card No. 1387 of 2,027

Partanosaurus

Say it: par-TAN-oh-SORE-us

Name means: “Partan lizard”2

Ate: FishSea reptilesMiddle TriassicNot technically a dinosaur

Partanosaurus was a marine reptile that swam in the warm seas of the Middle Triassic, about 240 million years ago. It is known from just a few bones found in the Austrian Alps, and scientists are not sure exactly what it looked like.2 1

Fun fact: this sea reptile swam while dinosaurs walked on land. Everyone calls them dinos, but they were a different branch of reptiles.

Lived

241 to 237 million years ago2

Middle Triassic

Fossils found in

Braz, Klosterthal, Vorarlberg, Austria2

Food

Fish2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Partanosaurus was named in 1893 by Theodor Skuphos, based on a few bones from the back and chest of one animal.2 1

For many years, scientists thought Partanosaurus might be the same as another marine reptile called Simosaurus, but a 2019 study said it is too incomplete to be sure.1

Partanosaurus lived during the Ladinian age of the Middle Triassic, between about 241 and 237 million years ago.2

The only known fossils of Partanosaurus come from the Partnach Formation in the Austrian Alps.2

Partanosaurus is considered a nomen dubium, which means its name is doubtful because the fossils are too few and lack unique features.1

Partanosaurus belonged to a group of marine reptiles called sauropterygians, which includes long-necked plesiosaurs and shorter-necked nothosaurs.2

AI-made picture of Partanosaurus — An AI-made picture of how Partanosaurus 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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Myth buster

Myth: Partanosaurus was a dinosaur.

Truth: Partanosaurus was a marine reptile called a sauropterygian, not a dinosaur. Dinosaurs lived on land.2

For dino experts

Scientific name: Partanosaurus
Named by: Skuphos 18932
Group: Sea reptiles
Family / clade: Nothosauria2
Classification: Nothosauria > Sauropterygia2
Age of the rocks: 241 to 237 million years (Ladinian)2
Rock formations: Partnach2
Countries: Austria2
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Partanosaurus was named by Theodor Skuphos in 1893, based on a few bones from the back and chest found in the Austrian Alps.2 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if Partanosaurus is a valid species or just a jumble of bones from another animal like Simosaurus.1

Where the facts come from

On the validity of the Middle Triassic sauropterygian ‘Partanosaurus zitteli’ and the diversity of Simosauridae (exa.ai)
Partanosaurus 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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