Prehistoric Reptiles: Plesiosaurs

Plesiosaurs were not dinosaurs, but large marine reptiles that lived in the seas during the Age of the Dinosaurs.

They had four flippers and pointed tails. They paddled with all four flippers as they swam, rather like turtles do today.

Plesiosaurs lived in the oceans, but breathed air. They probably laid eggs on sandy beaches, like today's sea turtles. They had sharp teeth and ate fish and other marine creatures.

There were two kinds of plesiosaurs:
Plesiosaurids, which had long snake-like necks with tiny heads. They had large bodies.
Pliosauroids, which had large heads with strong jaws. They had short necks. They looked similar to today's whales. They ate larger sea creatures.

Among the plesiosaurid group were:
Plesiosaurus: It was two and a half metres long, and lived in the early Jurassic period.

Cryptocleidus: It was 4 metres long, with interlocking curved teeth. It lived in the late Jurassic period.

Muraenosaurus: At 6 m long, it had a very long neck and wide body. It lived in the late Jurassic period.

Woolungosaurus: It was 8-10 m long, with a very long neck. It lived near what is now Queensland, Australia, in the early Cretaceous period.

Elasmosaurus: It was 14 m long, with an extremely long neck that was about half its total length. It had 71 vertebrae in its spine, and 28 of those formed its neck. Its flippers were very long . It lived in the late Cretaceous.

Among the Pliosauroid group were:
Macroplata (mac-roh-play-tuh):
It was four and a half metres long, with long jaws and a long neck. It lived in the early Jurassic period.

Peloneustes: Measuring 3 m long, it lived in the late Jurassic period.

Kronosaurus: It was 9 m long with a flat-topped head that was up over two and a half metres long, or about a quarter of its total length. It lived near what is now Queensland, Australia, in the early Cretaceous period.

Liopleurodon: At 12-15 m long , it lived in the late Jurassic period.

Dinosaurs...Dinosaur timeline...Fossils...Triassic...Jurassic...Cretaceous...Australian Dinosaurs...Flying reptiles...A-Z

If you use any part of this, acknowledge it in your bibliography like this:
The Age of Dinosaurs (2002). [Online], Available: www.kidcyber.com.au

Back to Animals
updated July 2007