Dino card No. 1795 of 2,027

Thililua

Say it: thih-lee-LOO-ah

Name means: “aquatic god in Berber mythology”1

Ate: MeatPlesiosaursLate CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Thililua was a short-necked plesiosaur that swam in warm seas off the coast of Africa. It had a long, slender snout and many sharp teeth to catch fish. This marine reptile was about as long as a small bus.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

94 to 90 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Near Goulmima, Er-Rachidia Province, southern Morocco1

Food

Meat3 1

Length

5.5 to 6 m1

estimated from skull and neck length compared to a related plesiosaur

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 6 dogs nose to tailas long as 33 bananas end to end

How big was Thililua compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Thililua is the first polycotylid plesiosaur ever found in Africa.1

Its name comes from a Berber water god, because it lived in the sea.1

Thililua had 30 neck vertebrae, and some of them had ridges on the sides that no other polycotylid had.1

The only known fossil includes a nearly complete skull and 37 vertebrae, found in a nodule of rock.1

Thililua lived about 93 to 90 million years ago, during the Turonian stage of the Late Cretaceous.3

Its teeth were all about the same size, with no big fangs like some other plesiosaurs.1

AI-made picture of Thililua — An AI-made picture of how Thililua 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 Thililua

?How big was Thililua?

Thililua was about 5.5 to 6 metres long, which is roughly the length of a small bus.2 1

?What did Thililua eat?

Thililua ate fish and other small sea creatures. It had a long, slender snout and many sharp, cone-shaped teeth that were all about the same size, perfect for catching slippery prey.2 1

?When did Thililua live?

Thililua lived about 93 to 90 million years ago, during the early Turonian stage of the Late Cretaceous period.2 3

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Thililua
Named by: Bardet et al. 20033
Group: Plesiosaurs
Family / clade: Polycotylidae3
Classification: Plesiosauria > Sauropterygia3
Age of the rocks: 94 to 90 million years (Turonian)3
Rock formations: Akrabou3
Countries: Morocco3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Thililua was named in 2003 by Nathalie Bardet, Xabier Pereda Suberbiola, and Nour-Eddine Jalil. The only specimen was found near Goulmima in Morocco, though the exact spot is unknown.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure whether Thililua was more closely related to long-necked plesiosaurs or to short-necked pliosaurs.1

Where the facts come from

doi:10.1016/S1631-0683(03)00063-0 (sciencepress.mnhn.fr)
Thililua (en.wikipedia.org)
Thililua 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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