Gallardosaurus

Gallardosaurus is known from only one partial skull and a few neck bones. The tip of the snout and the back of the lower jaw are missing.1

The bones were found inside a hard rock called a concretion, which helped preserve them in three dimensions.1

The individual was probably not fully grown when it died, because some of its vertebrae were not fused together.1

Gallardosaurus lived in a shallow sea only about 10 to 12 metres (33 to 39 feet) deep. Oysters and algae grew on the seafloor.1

It shared its home with ichthyosaurs, a marine turtle called Notoemys oxfordiensis, and another plesiosaur named Vinialesaurus caroli.1

Scientists think Gallardosaurus may have migrated across the Caribbean Seaway each season, following the fish it hunted.1

The first fossil was discovered in 1946 by a Cuban farmer named Juan Gallardo. It was not fully studied until many years later.1