Pliosaurs were marine reptiles that lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, ranging from 4 to 15 meters in length. They were carnivorous and had short necks, with a long head more like a crocodile. Pliosaurs were adapted for large prey, with the ability to swallow a cow or several humans in one bite. About two dozen species of pliosaur fossils have been unearthed, with notable specimens located in China, Argentina, England, Alaska, and Antarctica. Pliosaurs were global in their distribution and lived in dangerous seas with other marine creatures such as plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, sharks, and mosasaurs.
The pliosaurs (in Greek: “sailing lizards” or “fin lizards”) were a suborder of marine reptiles that lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, from about 200 million years ago (Thalassiodracon) to about 85 million years ago, when they extinguished. Ranging in length from 4 to 15 meters (13 to 50 feet), pliosaurs were carnivores that ate mostly fish, but probably also ichthyosaurs and other plesiosaurs. Pliosaurs are one of two suborders of the order Plesiosauria, along with their close relatives, the better known plesiosaurs.
Pliosaurs were slender animals, but sturdier than their relatives, the plesiosaurs, and had short necks. Instead of a long neck and short head, like plesiosaurs, pliosaurus had a long head and short neck, more like a crocodile. The largest pliosaurs had heads 2 m (6.5 ft) long. Unlike some plesiosaurs, which mostly confined themselves to small fish, pliosaurs seem highly adapted for large prey. With a 10-foot (3m) jaw and teeth the size of a cucumber, the largest pliosaurs could have swallowed a cow – or several humans – in one bite.
About two dozen species of pliosaur fossils have been unearthed, with notable specimens located in China, Argentina, England, Alaska and Antarctica. A complete pliosaur skeleton wasn’t found until an Antarctic dig in 2006. Parts of an earlier skeleton found by the same Oslo team, nicknamed “The Monster” or “the T. rex of the seas,” is among the largest reptiles marine never found, with a length of 15.25 m (50 ft). Although it is incorrectly called the largest marine reptile ever found, it is surpassed in size by members of several mosasaur lineages, including Mosasaurus hoffmanni and Hainosaurus bernardi (17m/55ft), and a species of plesiosaur found in Mexico nicknamed the monster of “Aramberri” (about 15 m long). Aramberri’s find was initially misidentified as a pliosaur and the size exaggerated at 18 m or more.
Some well-known examples of pliosaur genera include Pliosaurus, Peloneustes, Macroplata, Kronosaurus, Pliosaurus, Peloneustes, and Liopleurodon. Pliosaurs were evidently global or nearly global in their distribution. The time when pliosaurs lived in the ocean together with plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, sharks and mosasaurs are sometimes called the most dangerous seas in the history of life.
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