''Maresaurus'' is an
extinct genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...
of
plesiosaur from the
Middle Jurassic
The Middle Jurassic is the second epoch of the Jurassic Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 163.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relatively rare, but geological formations ...
(
Bajocian
In the geologic timescale
The geologic time scale, or geological time scale, (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relatin ...
)
Los Molles Formation
The Los Molles Formation is a geologic formation of Early to Middle Jurassic age, located at northern and central part of Neuquén Basin at Mendoza Shelf in Argentina. It is overlain by the Niyeu–Lajas Formation.McIlroy et al., 2005
Descript ...
of
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...
. The
type species
In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...
, ''Maresaurus coccai'', was named by Gasparini in 1997. Recent phylogenetic analysis found ''Maresaurus'' to be a rhomaleosaurid.
[Smith AS, Dyke GJ. 2008. The skull of the giant predatory pliosaur ''Rhomaleosaurus cramptoni'': implications for plesiosaur phylogenetics. ''Naturwissenschaften'' e-published 2008.] It was about long and weighed .
See also
*
List of plesiosaur genera
This list of plesiosaurs is a comprehensive listing of all genera that have ever been included in the order Plesiosauria, excluding purely vernacular terms. The list includes all commonly accepted genera, but also genera that are now considered inv ...
*
Timeline of plesiosaur research
This timeline of plesiosaur research is a chronologically ordered list of important fossil discoveries, controversies of interpretation, taxonomic revisions, and cultural portrayals of plesiosaurs, an order of marine reptiles that flourished d ...
References
External links
* Smith, Adam S. and Dyke, Gareth J. (2008)
The skull of the giant predatory pliosaur ''Rhomaleosaurus cramptoni'': implications for plesiosaur phylogenetics" ''Naturwissenschaften''.
from the Plesiosaur Directory
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3390438
Rhomaleosaurids
Middle Jurassic plesiosaurs
Plesiosaurs of South America
Bajocian life
Jurassic Argentina
Fossils of Argentina
Neuquén Basin
Fossil taxa described in 1997
Sauropterygian genera