Plotosaurus
Extinct genus of lizards / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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.
Plotosaurus | |
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Mounted skeleton (CIT 2750) at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County | |
Scientific 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 | |
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