Brancasaurus

Brancasaurus Temporal range: Berriasian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Holotype specimen
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Superorder:	†Sauropterygia
Order:	†Plesiosauria
Genus:	†Brancasaurus Wegner, 1914
Species:	†B. brancai
Binomial name
†Brancasaurus brancai Wegner, 1914
Synonyms
Gronausaurus wegneri Hampe, 2013 Plesiosaurus kanzleri? Koken, 1905 Plesiosaurus limnophilus? Koken, 1887

Brancasaurus (meaning "Branca's lizard") is a genus of plesiosaur which lived in a freshwater lake in the Early Cretaceous of what is now North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a long neck possessing vertebrae bearing distinctively-shaped "shark fin"-shaped neural spines, and a relatively small and pointed head, Brancasaurus is superficially similar to Elasmosaurus, albeit smaller in size at 3.26 metres (10.7 ft) in length as a subadult.

The type species of this genus is Brancasaurus brancai, first named by Theodor Wegner in 1914 in honor of German paleontologist Wilhelm von Branca.^[1] Another plesiosaur named from the same region, Gronausaurus wegneri, most likely represents a synonym of this genus. While traditionally considered as a basal member of the Elasmosauridae, Brancasaurus has more recently been recovered as a member, or close relative, of the Leptocleididae, a group containing many other freshwater plesiosaurs.