PLESIOSAURUS
Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus
Meaning: "Almost Lizard"
📊 STATS
Size comparison:
As long as a small car!
📖 ABOUT PLESIOSAURUS
Meet Plesiosaurus, the "almost lizard"! This amazing swimming reptile lived in the Jurassic seas and used its long neck to catch tasty fish!
Imagine a dinosaur that wasn't on land, but in the water! That's Plesiosaurus! Living in the Early Jurassic period, this incredible reptile was a master swimmer. Its name, "almost lizard," is a bit funny because it wasn't actually a lizard, but a type of marine reptile. Plesiosaurus had a long, slender neck, a small head, and a body shaped like a turtle, but without the shell. Instead of legs for walking, it had four powerful flippers that helped it zoom through the ocean at speeds up to 15 km/h!
Plesiosaurus was a piscivore, which means it loved to eat fish! Scientists believe it used its long neck to sneak up on unsuspecting fish and then snap them up with its pointy teeth. Imagine being a fish and seeing that long neck appear out of nowhere! The first Plesiosaurus fossil was discovered by Mary Anning, a famous fossil hunter, in England. Thanks to her, we know about this amazing creature that swam the seas millions of years ago!
🔬 CLASSIFICATION
- Group
- Plesiosauria
- Family
- Plesiosauridae
- Period
- Early Jurassic (201-174 Ma)
- Era
- 199.0 - 175.0 million years ago
🗺️ DISCOVERY
- Year
- 1821
- Discovered by
- Mary Anning
- Location
- Dorset, England
- Fossils found in
- England, Germany
🎨 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATION
Artistic reconstruction of Plesiosaurus based on fossil evidence
🗺️ WHERE FOSSILS WERE FOUND
England, Germany
🤓 FUN FACTS
- ✨ Plesiosaurus had a neck that was longer than its body!
- ✨ Mary Anning, the person who found the first Plesiosaurus, was only 21 years old!
- ✨ Plesiosaurus fossils have been found in both England and Germany!
- ✨ Even though it lived in the water, Plesiosaurus needed to breathe air, just like us!
- ✨ Plesiosaurus used its four flippers to 'fly' through the water!
💡 DID YOU KNOW?
Get this - some people think the Loch Ness Monster might be a Plesiosaur that somehow survived! Of course, that's just a fun theory!
