恐龍卡第 1210 張，共 2 027 張

Morenosaurus

名字的意思： “Moreno lizard, named after the Moreno Formation where it was found”1

吃：肉蛇頸龍類白堊紀晚期嚴格來說不是恐龍

Morenosaurus was a huge marine reptile that swam in the seas near California about 70 million years ago. It had a very long neck and flippers like paddles, and it was not a dinosaur!1

趣味小知識：這種海生爬蟲類在海裡游泳的時候，恐龍正在陸地上走路。大家都叫牠們恐龍，但牠們其實是爬蟲類的另一個分支。

生存年代

72 到 66 百萬年前3

白堊紀晚期

化石發現地

Panoche Hills, Fresno County, California, USA1 2

最高速度

時速約 27 公里（17 英里）

游泳, 估計值

牠生活在什麼時候？

三疊紀

侏羅紀

白堊紀

2 億 5200 萬年前20114566，小行星撞地球

牠有多快？

走路的人 時速約 5 公里 (3 mph)

騎腳踏車的小朋友 時速約 12 公里 (7 mph)

Morenosaurus 時速約 27 公里 (17 mph)

一匹飛奔的馬 時速約 65 公里 (40 mph)

一隻獵豹 時速約 100 公里 (62 mph)

酷東西

趣味知識

The skeleton of Morenosaurus was fairly complete, but it was missing the head and parts of the neck and paddles.1

The preserved part of the trunk and tail is 3.63 metres (11.9 feet) long.1

Morenosaurus lived during the Maastrichtian age, about 72 to 66 million years ago.3

The type specimen is stored at the California Institute of Technology, but the mounted skeleton is now in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.1

Morenosaurus belongs to a group called elasmosaurids, which were plesiosaurs with very long necks.1

Morenosaurus 的 AI 繪圖 — 這是電腦根據科學家目前的知識，用 AI 畫出 Morenosaurus 可能的樣子。這只是猜測：真正的動物可能長得不一樣，也沒有人知道牠真正的顏色。

迷思破解王

迷思： Some people think all marine reptiles from the dinosaur age were dinosaurs.

真相： Morenosaurus was a plesiosaur, a marine reptile, not a dinosaur. Dinosaurs lived on land.1

給恐龍專家

學名: Morenosaurus
命名者: Welles 19433
類群: 蛇頸龍類
科 / 演化支: Elasmosauridae3
分類: Plesiosauria > Elasmosauridae > Sauropterygia3
岩石的年代: 72 到 66 百萬年 (Maastrichtian)3
岩層: Moreno3
國家: 美國3
化石紀錄: The Paleobiology Database 收錄 2 筆3
發現: The skeleton was found by Robert Wallace and Arthur Drescher in 1939 in the Panoche Hills, California. Samuel Welles named it Morenosaurus stocki in 1943, honoring Dr. Chester Stock.1 2
仍有爭議: Scientists are not sure about the total length of Morenosaurus because the head and neck are missing from the fossil.1