Dino card No. 1426 of 2,027

Picrocleidus

Say it: PIK-ro-KLY-dus

Name means: “sharp key”1

Ate: MeatPlesiosaursMiddle JurassicNot technically a dinosaur

Picrocleidus was a plesiosaur, a long-necked marine reptile that swam in the Jurassic seas. It had a small head, a very long neck, and four flippers to paddle through the water. Picrocleidus was a meat-eater that hunted 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

165 to 162 million years ago2

Middle Jurassic

Fossils found in

Peterborough, England, United Kingdom1 2

Food

Meat2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Picrocleidus lived about 165 to 161 million years ago, during the Middle Jurassic period.2

The first Picrocleidus fossil was found in the Oxford Clay Formation in Peterborough, England.1

Picrocleidus was originally thought to be a species of another plesiosaur called Muraenosaurus, but scientists later gave it its own name.1

Five Picrocleidus specimens have been found, including one with a complete tail and another that was a young individual.1

The name Picrocleidus comes from Greek words meaning 'sharp key', because of its sharp, key-shaped collarbones.1

Picrocleidus is classified as a cryptoclidid, a group of plesiosaurs with long necks and small heads.1 2

AI-made picture of Picrocleidus — An AI-made picture of how Picrocleidus 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: Picrocleidus
Named by: Andrews 19092
Group: Plesiosaurs
Family / clade: Cryptoclididae2
Classification: Plesiosauria > Sauropterygia2
Age of the rocks: 165 to 162 million years (Callovian)2
Rock formations: Oxford Clay2
Countries: United Kingdom2
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: The first Picrocleidus fossil was discovered in the Oxford Clay Formation in Peterborough, England, and was acquired by Alfred Nicholson Leeds. It was first named Muraenosaurus beloclis by Seeley in 1892, but Charles William Andrews gave it its own genus name Picrocleidus in 1910.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if Picrocleidus is really a separate genus from Muraenosaurus, or if they are the same animal.1

Where the facts come from

Picrocleidus (en.wikipedia.org)
Picrocleidus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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