| Plesiotylosaurus Temporal range: Maastrichtian,
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|---|---|
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| Holotype skull (LACM 2759) | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Clade: | †Mosasauria |
| Family: | †Mosasauridae |
| Genus: | †Plesiotylosaurus Camp, 1942 |
| Species: | †P. crassidens
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| Binomial name | |
| †Plesiotylosaurus crassidens Camp, 1942
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Plesiotylosaurus, meaning "near Tylosaurus", is an extinct genus of marine lizard belonging to the mosasaur family. It is classified as part of the Mosasaurinae subfamily, alongside genera like Mosasaurus and Prognathodon. The genus contains one species, Plesiotylosaurus crassidens, recovered from deposits of Middle Maastrichtian age in the Moreno Formation in California.[1]
Though it is classified as a mosasaurine mosasaur, and not closely related to Tylosaurus, the name is not entirely misplaced as a number of cranial features found in the relatively intact holotype skull suggest some degree of convergent evolution with tylosaurine mosasaurs.[2]
- ^ "Fossilworks: Plesiotylosaurus". fossilworks.org. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
- ^ Lindgren, Johan (2009). "Cranial osteology of the giant mosasaur Plesiotylosaurus (Squamata, Mosasauridae)". Journal of Paleontology. 83 (3): 448–456. doi:10.1666/08-115.1. JSTOR 29739109.