Brachauchenius

Brachauchenius
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 100–90 Ma
Holotype specimen of B. lucasi (USNM 4989), as view in its original position
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Superorder: Sauropterygia
Order: Plesiosauria
Family: Pliosauridae
Subfamily: Brachaucheninae
Genus: Brachauchenius
Williston, 1903
Type species
Brachauchenius lucasi
Williston, 1903

Brachauchenius (meaning 'short neck') is an extinct genus of pliosaurs that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what are now North America and North Africa. Only one species is known, B. lucasi, initially described by Samuel Wendell Williston in 1903 from a partial fossil skeleton discovered in a quarry in Kansas, United States. Many other fossil specimens attributed to the species were subsequently discovered, including an individual from Morocco whose presence was made official in 2016. Many contemporary pliosaur specimens were formerly attributed to Brachauchenius, but have since been reidentified as belonging to other genera or are recognized as indeterminate.