Dino card No. 1672 of 2,027

Sinopliosaurus

Say it: SY-no-PLY-oh-SORE-us

Name means: “Chinese pliosaur”4

Ate: MeatPlesiosaursEarly Jurassic to Early CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Sinopliosaurus was a big marine reptile that swam in the seas during the Jurassic period. It was a plesiosaur, not a dinosaur, and it used its flippers to glide through the water. It was a fierce hunter with sharp teeth.4

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 143 million years ago4

Early Jurassic to Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Fossils were found in Sichuan and Xinjiang, China.1

Food

Meat4

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Sinopliosaurus lived from about 184 to 143 million years ago, during the Jurassic period.1

Its teeth were small, curved, and had grooves along the crown.1

The backbone bones were flat at both ends, which is a special feature.1

It was a fast swimmer that lived near the surface of the sea.4

The type specimen includes a tooth and three vertebrae, found in 1939.2

AI-made picture of Sinopliosaurus — An AI-made picture of how Sinopliosaurus 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.

you asked

Most asked questions about Sinopliosaurus

?Was Sinopliosaurus a dinosaur?

No, it was a plesiosaur, a type of marine reptile that lived in the sea. It is not a dinosaur.3 4

?How big was Sinopliosaurus?

Nobody knows for sure, because only a few bones have been found. Pliosaurids (its family) ranged from about 3 metres to 12 metres long.4

?What did Sinopliosaurus eat?

It was a carnivore, meaning it ate meat. It had sharp, grooved teeth for catching prey.4

?When did Sinopliosaurus live?

It lived during the Jurassic period, from about 184 to 143 million years ago. Some remains may be from the Early Cretaceous, around 100 million years ago.4 3

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Sinopliosaurus
Named by: Young 19444
Group: Plesiosaurs
Family / clade: Pliosauridae4
Classification: Plesiosauria > Pliosauridae > Sauropterygia4
Age of the rocks: 184 to 143 million years (Toarcian / Tithonian)4
Rock formations: Ziliujing, Lianmuqin4
Countries: China4
Fossil records: 4 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Sinopliosaurus was named by Chinese scientist Yang Zhongjian (C.C. Young) in 1944. The first fossils were found by H.H. Yao in 1939 in Sichuan, China.2
Still debated: Some scientists think Sinopliosaurus weiyuanensis might not be a valid species, because the fossils are too few and incomplete.1

Where the facts come from

paleobiodb.org (paleobiodb.org)
PBDB Collection (paleobiodb.org)
Sinopliosaurus (Wikipedia) (Wikipedia)
Sinopliosaurus 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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