The Plesiosaur Site
About this site
This site is intended to give serious and detailed information on the order plesiosauria, to provide a forum for discussion and for the presentation of ideas no matter how wild and fanciful on the palaeontology, taxonomy, biomechanics, biology and ecological role of members of the order. I hope that people will send in material I can include here.
What is a plesiosaur?
It is not concerned with
- Strange creatures lurking in lakes in Scotland, Sweden, Canada or anywhere else. Because I am asked the question so frequently I have added a page explaining why the Loch Ness monster is not a plesiosaur.
- Decomposing sharks or any other modern marine animals. Decomposing carcases are frequently interpreted as being those of plesiosaurs, and I am contacted frequently by people trying to argue that that is what they are. All the pictures I've seen show something that is completely unlike a plesiosaur even superficially, and marine biologists and shark experts confirm again and again that these are the carcases of sharks, probably basking sharks. Have a look at http://members.aol.com/paluxy2/plesios.htm for a report by Glen Kuban on one such account.
If anyone
- has any comments
- finds any mistakes
- wants to contribute their own views
- has any pictures I can include without breaching copyright
- wants to register material in collections I have not included
- has draft papers to circulate for comment
- has any wild idea to air
- thinks this is all a load of tosh
Please contact me
e: moc.ruasoiselp@drahcir
News
Press Release from the University of Oslo, 27th February 2008.
The 2007 season on Svalbard. The body count of marine reptiles has now reached 40, and includes a second large pliosaur.
New Papers
- Schumacher, Bruce A; 2007; A new polycotylid plesiosaur (Reptilia; Sauropterygia) from the Greenhorn Limestone (Upper Cretaceous; lower upper Cenomanian), Black Hills, South Dakota; The Geological Society of America Special Paper 427
- Vincent, Peggy, Bardet, Nathalie and Morel, Nicholas; 2007; An elasmosaurid plesiosaur from the Aalenian (Middle Jurassic) of Western France; N. Jb. Geol. Palaont. Abh.; 243(3) pp.363-370; Stuttgart
- Z Gasparini, L Salgado and A. Parras 2007. Late Cretaceous plesiosaurs from northern Patagonia, Argentina. Geological Magazine 42, 185-202.
- Großmann, Fransiska; 2007; The Taxonomic and Phylogenetic Position of the Plesiosauroidea from the Lower Jurassic Posidonia Shale of South-West Germany; Palaeontology; 50(3) pp.545-564
- Faux, CM, and K Padian. The opisthotonic posture of vertebrate skeletons:
postmortem contraction or death throes? Paleobiology 33: 201-226.
Some discussion of plesiosaur taphonomy.
If anyone has a pdf which they can share, please contact me.
What is
a plesiosaur?";