Cardiocorax
Cardiocorax was a long-necked marine reptile that swam in the seas near Africa 71 million years ago. It was not a dinosaur but a plesiosaur, with four flippers that helped it paddle through the water like a sea turtle. Scientists think it used a special rowing style to chase fish and other prey.12
Cando viviu?
Que velocidade alcanzaba?
Datos curiosos
Cardiocorax had a heart-shaped hole between its shoulder blades, which is why it is named 'heart raven'.1
Its shoulder blade had a very small upper part, unlike other elasmosaurids. This helped it swim with a special rowing motion.2
The first fossils of Cardiocorax were found in 2015 in Angola, Africa. They included a complete shoulder and hip girdle, neck bones, and part of a front flipper.1
A second specimen was found just 7 meters away from the first one. It had a more complete hip and a hind flipper.1
Cardiocorax lived about 71.4 to 71.6 million years ago, during the early Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous.1
Its species name 'mukulu' means 'ancestor' in Angolan Bantu languages.1
Cardiocorax is a type of elasmosaurid, a group of plesiosaurs with very long necks and small heads.1

Para expertos en dinos
- Nome científico
- Cardiocorax
- Bautizado por
- Araújo et al. 20154
- Grupo
- Plesiosauros
- Familia / clado
- Elasmosauridae4
- Clasificación
- Plesiosauria > Elasmosauridae > Sauropterygia4
- Idade das rochas
- de 72 a 66 millóns de anos (Maastrichtian)4
- Formacións rochosas
- Mocuio4
- Países
- Angola4
- Rexistros fósiles
- 2 na Paleobiology Database4
- Descubrimento
- Cardiocorax was named in 2015 by a team of scientists including Ricardo Araújo and Octávio Mateus. The fossils were found in the Mocuio Formation of Angola, Africa.13
- Aínda en debate
- Scientists are still debating exactly how Cardiocorax used its flippers to swim, because its shoulder bones are different from other plesiosaurs.2
De onde veñen os datos
- Cardiocorax (en.wikipedia.org)
- S0016774614000444 109..120 (cambridge.org)
- PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
- Cardiocorax in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): idade, lugares, formacións rochosas, clasificación.
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