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Plesiopterys

Say it: PLEE-see-OP-ter-iss

Name means: “near wing”1

Ate: MeatPlesiosaursEarly JurassicNot technically a dinosaur

Plesiopterys was a small, long-necked marine reptile that swam in the warm seas of Early Jurassic Germany. It had flippers like paddles and a mouth full of sharp teeth for catching fish and squid.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

184 to 183 million years ago3

Early Jurassic

Fossils found in

Posidonienschiefer near Holzmaden, Baden-Württemberg, Germany1 3

Food

Meat3

Length

2.2 to 3 m1 2

subadult specimen measured 3 m; the holotype skeleton is 2.2 m long

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 3 dogs nose to tailas long as 17 bananas end to end

How big was Plesiopterys compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

cool stuff

Fun facts

Plesiopterys had 39 neck vertebrae, giving it a long, flexible neck.2

One fossil of Plesiopterys preserves traces of scaly skin on its front flipper and smooth skin on its tail.1

The tail skin of that fossil also contains dark-colored melanosomes, which are pigment cells that may have given the animal a dark color.1

Plesiopterys is one of the most primitive plesiosaurs known, meaning it had many features from earlier ancestors.2

Its skull was small compared to its neck, only about 17 percent of the neck length.2

The name Plesiopterys also refers to the pterygoid bones in the roof of its mouth, which are important for identifying the species.1

AI-made picture of Plesiopterys — An AI-made picture of how Plesiopterys 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: Plesiopterys
Named by: O'Keefe 20043
Group: Plesiosaurs
Family / clade: Plesiosauroidea3
Classification: Plesiosauria > Sauropterygia3
Age of the rocks: 184 to 183 million years (Toarcian)3
Rock formations: Posidonienschiefer3
Countries: Germany3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Plesiopterys was named in 2004 by paleontologist F. Robin O'Keefe, based on a skeleton found in the 19th century near Holzmaden, Germany. The species name P. wildi honors German paleontologist Rupert Wild.1 2
Still debated: Scientists debate whether Plesiopterys is a separate species or the same as another plesiosaur called Seeleyosaurus guilelmiimperatoris.1

Where the facts come from

Plesiopterys (en.wikipedia.org)
pleo_78_511.973_988.tp (doc.rero.ch)
Plesiopterys 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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