Plesiosaurs

In 1821, William Coniber and Henry Thomas de la Besch found some differences in the species they studied from the ichthyosaurus . They called the new form a plesiosaur ^[2] .

In 1824, in England , in the vicinity of the town of Lyme Regis , in a rock on the seashore, amateur paleontologist Mary Enning dug up the full skeleton of an Early Jurassic plesiosaur of the Plesiosaurus dolishodeirus type . It was the first documented find of a plesiosaur. Mary sold this skeleton. The skeleton fell into the hands of the paleontologist William Conyier, who described the lizard in the same year. Then Mary found two more skeletons.

In 1868, paleontologist Edward Drinker Kop described a plesiosaur Elasmosaurus platyurus from the Upper Cretaceous sediments of Kansas ( USA ). During reconstruction, he made a mistake by placing the head of an elasmosaurus on the tip of the tail, and not on the end of the neck. In the future, Cop's rival, Gofnil Charles Marsh, pointed out this mistake.

Since then, the remains of plesiosaurs have been found on all continents, especially the remains are numerous in the Jurassic sediments of Europe ; in the CIS, remains of plesiosaurs are found in the Middle Volga region , the Trans-Volga region, the northwestern part of Kazakhstan and Yakutia .

Two suborders of plesiosaurs are distinguished - long-necked plesiosauruses (including the family of tsimoliazaurov ) and short-necked pliozaurods .

The largest plesiosaurs are the plesiosaurus elasmosaurus , such as the representatives of the genera Mauisaurus, Elasmosaurus , Hydrotherosaurus , reaching 20, 14 and 13 m, respectively (although, estimates of the length of the first 20 m are still not indisputable). Some pliosaurs, such as the kronosaur and pliosaur , although they were somewhat shorter than the total length, had a significantly greater weight.

In the film BBC " Walking with dinosaurs " shows a giant 25-meter lyopleurodon . But this figure was greatly exaggerated, in fact, the average lyopleprodone was no more than 4.5 meters in length, and individuals more than 6 meters long were already encountered very rarely. The remains, allegedly belonging to giant lioplevrodon, actually belong to the pliozavroids of other genera, which even then do not reach such large sizes. Thus, in 2005, the remains of a giant pliosaur of an unknown type (possibly close to a kronosaur or pliosaur) were discovered in Mexico , the length of which, judging by different more or less reliable calculations, reached from 11.7 to 15 m. It was unofficially called “ Monster of Aramberry "(in the place where he was found).

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  Elasmosaurus platyurus

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  Liopleurodon

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Taxonomy

• Sauropterygia
  • Pistosaurus
  • Order: Plesiosaurs ( Plesiosauria )
    • Suborder Plesiosauroidea
      • Plesiopterys
      • Plesiosauridae Family
      • Hoard Euplesiosauria
        • Cryptoclidoidea Superfamily
          • Cryptoclididae Family
          • Clade Tricleidia
            • Family Tricledidae
            • Family Cimoliasauridae
            • Polycotylidae family
            • Elasmosauridae Family
    • Suborder Pliosauroidea
      • Bishanopliosaurus
      • Megalneusaurus
      • Pachycostasaurus
      • Sinopliosaurus
      • Thalassiodracon
      • Archaeonectrus
      • Attenborosaurus
      • Eurycleidus
      • Rhomaleosauridae Family
      • Leptocleididae family
      • Pliosauridae family

Plesiosaurs mainly fed on clams and fish. Large species of pliosaurus fed on various marine reptiles (including other plesiosaurs), sharks and other large prey. Some plesiosaurs could sometimes catch birds or flying lizards . One of the long-necked plesiosaurs discovered by paleontologists retained in the stomach area the remnants of his last meal — the corpse of a flying lizard, fish bones, and ammonite shell. At the same time, the remains of elasmosaurs, large sharks and turtles, which were dissected by the jaws, were found in the stomach area of ​​the kronosaur ^[3] .

Disputes about the ways of reproduction of plesiosaurs have been lasting for 200 years.

Many experts believed that due to the large weight it was difficult to get to the shore and lay eggs for the animal, that is, they had to be viviparous. The first direct evidence of this was obtained after a careful study of the fossilized skeleton of a plesiosaur (they had been in the basement of the Museum of Natural History in Los Angeles for about 20 years) ^[4] .

Plesiosaurs have appeared in many works of art. The first book in which the plesiosaur was mentioned is Jules Verne 's Journey to the Center of the Earth , where the long-necked plesiosaur is found. In the novel “The Lost World ” by A. Conan-Doyle , a small freshwater plesiosaur was mentioned that lived in the central lake-plateau. In the novel by V.A. Obruchev "Plutonium" there was a description of two plesiosaurs that fought because of fish. In the book “ The Mystery of Two Oceans ” by G. Adamov, the heroes discover an underwater colony of plesiosaurs, which in the process of evolution gained the ability to breathe underwater (the word “plesiosaur” is mentioned only in the end, during a scientific conference). Almost the entire flock found destroyed in the attack on the team. The most faithful image of the plesiosaur is found in the work of Harry Adam Knight “ Carnosaur ”.

Plesiosaurs also appeared in many films. The most famous and remembered public film is the Japanese horror film “ The Legend of Dinosaur ” and the British adventure film “The Land, Forgotten Time” .

In the films, plesiosaurs were mainly represented by giant bloodthirsty monsters. More accurately, plesiosaurs were featured on the BBC television series Walking with Dinosaurs .

Plesiosaurus appears in episode 22 of season 3 of the X-files series - “Quagmire”. Plesiosaurs also appeared in the video games " Dino Crisis 2 " and "The Turk: Evolution".

Plesiosaurs in Modern Mythology

• According to some researchers, the well-known Nessie , presumably dwelling in the Scottish Loch Ness lake, may be the last representative of plesiosaurs (and the falsifiers portrayed it in accordance with the old ideas of plesiosaurs as creatures with a mobile neck capable of rising high above water - see for example, the famous photo from the Daily Mail newspaper for 1934; it is now established that the neck of these creatures was practically motionless. Plesiosaurs are guessed in the description of some other lake monsters. All these lakes are located in the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere and have karst fractures at the bottom.

• Plesiosaur List
• Loch Ness monster
• Dzuyo-maru carcass

• Basics of paleontology. Amphibians, reptiles and birds. - M. , 1964.
• Ostrovsky A. Monsters of the Mesozoic Seas // “ Around the World ”, May 2010, No. 5 (2836), heading “Spiral of Time”.

• Found the best skeleton of a young plesiosaur
• Alexeyisaurus karnoushenkoi - the oldest representative of elasmosaurs