''Lorrainosaurus'' is an extinct genus of

thalassophonea Pliosauridae is a family of plesiosaurian marine reptiles from the Latest Triassic to the early Late Cretaceous (Rhaetian to Turonian stages). The family is more inclusive than the archetypal short-necked large headed species that are placed in ...

pliosaurid Pliosauridae is a family of plesiosaurian marine reptiles from the Latest Triassic to the early Late Cretaceous (Rhaetian to Turonian stages). The family is more inclusive than the archetypal short-necked large headed species that are placed in ...

from the

Middle Jurassic The Middle Jurassic is the second Epoch (geology), epoch of the Jurassic Period (geology), Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 161.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relativel ...

Lorraine Lorraine, also , ; ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; ; ; is a cultural and historical region in Eastern France, now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Its name stems from the medieval kingdom of ...

, France.

Discovery and naming

The

holotype specimen A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was Species description, formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illus ...

( MNHNL BU159) was discovered during a temporary excavation for a roadway upgrade between the Montois-la-Montagne and Sainte-Marie-aux-Chênes communes in

, France. The remains consisted of a near-complete

mandible In jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin ''mandibula'', 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lowerand typically more mobilecomponent of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla). The jawbone i ...

coracoid A coracoid is a paired bone which is part of the shoulder assembly in all vertebrates except therian mammals (marsupials and placentals). In therian mammals (including humans), a coracoid process is present as part of the scapula, but this is n ...

shoulder bone, a tooth, and fragments of the

upper jaw In vertebrates, the maxilla (: maxillae ) is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The two maxillar ...

and front limb. They specifically originated from a section of the Marnes de Gravelotte, a

marl Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, Clay minerals, clays, and silt. When Lithification, hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae. M ...

deposit dated to the

Bajocian In the geologic timescale, the Bajocian is an age and stage in the Middle Jurassic. It lasted from approximately 170.9 ±0.8 Ma to around 168.2 ±1.2 Ma (million years ago). The Bajocian Age succeeds the Aalenian Age and precedes the Bathonia ...

stage of the

around 168 mya. The specimen first came under the study of

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

Pascal Godefroit in 1994, who described it as a new species of ''

Simolestes ''Simolestes'' (meaning "snub-nosed thief") is an extinct pliosaurid genus that lived in the Middle to Late Jurassic. The type specimen, NHMUK PV R 3319 is an almost complete but crushed skeleton diagnostic to ''Simolestes vorax'', dating back ...

'' and assigned the name ''S. keileni''. The generic identification was doubted by the PhD thesis of Noè (2001),Noè, L. F. (2001). A taxonomic and functional study of the Callovian (Middle Jurassic) Pliosauroidea (Reptilia, Sauropterygia). Chicago. but it was not until at least 2021 that the holotype began to be rigorously reexamined by Sven Sachs of the Bielefeld Natural History Museum. Sachs published his results in a 2023 multi-authored study, which found that MNHNL BU159 belonged to a more derived lineage than ''Simolestes''. This thus warranted a new genus, which they named '' Lorrainosaurus'', a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of the type locality Lorraine and

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''σαῦρος'' (''sauros'', "reptile").

Description

''Lorrainosaurus'' was a fairly small pliosaur. When extrapolating the length of the holotype's full-length mandible () to the proportions of the closely related ''

Stenorhynchosaurus ''Stenorhynchosaurus'' is an extinct genus of pliosaurid plesiosaurs which lived in the Early Cretaceous of South America. The type species and only known is ''Stenorhynchosaurus munozi''. Etymology The genus name is derived from the Greek w ...

'', which is represented by a near-complete skeleton with a mandible close to one-third of the total animal's length, a total length of for ''L. keileni'' can be estimated.

Notes

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q123101650 Pliosauridae Fossil taxa described in 2023

Discovery and naming

Description

See also

Notes

References