Pliosaurus

ancient reptile · ocean predator · jurassic period · plesiosaur

Powerful marine hunter. Pliosaurus was a pliosaur, a type of plesiosaur that ruled the oceans from the Upper Jurassic to the Lower Cretaceous periods. It had a stockier body and more crocodile-like head than its relatives, making it a fierce predator of the ancient seas.

Found in two continents. Fossils of Pliosaurus have been discovered in what is now Europe and South America, showing that these amazing creatures lived across vast ocean regions during prehistoric times.

First fossil discovery. The first known Pliosaurus skeleton was found by William Buckland in Market Rasen, England, in what is now a place where an ancient sea once covered the land. It was a partial skeleton from a young animal, giving scientists their first clue about this creature.

Named for its look. The scientist Richard Owen named Pliosaurus, which means 'more lizard,' because its crocodile-like appearance was more similar to modern reptiles than to other plesiosaurs. Owen formally described it as a new species in 1841 and gave it its own genus later that same year.

Many named species. Over the years, scientists assigned many different species to Pliosaurus, but modern research in 2013 confirmed that only six species were truly valid. This shows how scientists keep learning and refining what we know about ancient creatures.