Plotosaurus

Plotosaurus
Temporal range: Maastrichtian,
~70.6–66 Ma
↓
[1][2]
Mounted skeleton (CIT 2750) at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Clade: †Mosasauria
Family: †Mosasauridae
Genus: †Plotosaurus
Camp, 1951
Species:
†P. bennisoni
Binomial name
†Plotosaurus bennisoni
Camp, 1942
Synonyms
  • Kolposaurus Camp, 1942
  • Garzasaurus Anderson, 1943
  • Plotosaurus tuckeri Camp, 1951

Plotosaurus ("swimmer lizard") is an extinct genus of mosasaurs who lived during the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) in what is now North America. Only one species is recognized, P. bennisoni, described by Berkeley paleontologist Charles Lewis Camp in 1942 from fossils discovered in California. Originally named Kolposaurus (meaning "bay lizard"), it was changed to Plotosaurus in 1951 when Camp discovered that the name had already been assigned to a type of nothosaur. Unlike other mosasaurids, Plotosaurus possesses a morphology converging with those of ichthyosaurs, suggesting a much more advanced swimming adaptation than some of its close relatives.

  1. ^ James G. Ogg; Linda A. Hinnov (2012), "Cretaceous", in Felix M. Gradstein; James G. Ogg; Mark D. Schmitz; Gabi M. Ogg (eds.), The Geologic Time Scale, Oxford: Elsevier, pp. 793–853, doi:10.1016/B978-0-444-59425-9.00027-5, ISBN 978-0-444-59425-9, S2CID 127523816
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Lindgrenetal2008 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).