Cryptoclididae is a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

of medium-sized

plesiosaur The Plesiosauria or plesiosaurs are an Order (biology), order or clade of extinct Mesozoic marine reptiles, belonging to the Sauropterygia. Plesiosaurs first appeared in the latest Triassic Period (geology), Period, possibly in the Rhaetian st ...

s that existed from the Middle

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 143.1 Mya. ...

to the Early

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

. They had long necks, broad and short skulls and densely packed teeth. They fed on small soft-bodied preys such as small fish and

crustacean Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

s. The earliest members of the family appeared during the early Bajocian, and they represented the dominant group of long-necked plesiosaurs during the latter half of the Jurassic.

Classification

In 2010, two supposed late Cretaceous members of the group were reclassified as other kinds of plesiosauroids. '' Kaiwhekea'' was reclassified to Leptocleididae, and '' Aristonectes'' was transferred to Elasmosauridae.

Cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

based on Ketchum and Benson (2010):

References

External links

palaeos.com
Jurassic plesiosaurs Cretaceous plesiosaurs Callovian first appearances Late Cretaceous extinctions Sauropterygian families {{Jurassic-reptile-stub