''Rhaeticosaurus'' (meaning 'Rhaetian lizard') is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of basal pliosauroid from the

Late Triassic The Late Triassic is the third and final epoch (geology), epoch of the Triassic geologic time scale, Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between annum, Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch a ...

(

Rhaetian The Rhaetian is the latest age (geology), age of the Triassic period (geology), Period (in geochronology) or the uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Triassic system (stratigraphy), System (in chronostratigraphy). It was preceded by the N ...

) rocks of the Exter Formation. The type and only species, ''R. mertensi'', was named by Wintrich ''et al.'' in 2017. It is known from a partial articulated skeleton.

Discovery and naming

The holotype is LWL-MFN P 64047 and it was discovered in Clay pit #3 belonging to the Lücking brick company in 2013, in the section below the Triassic-Jurassic boundary and about below a bonebed containing a vertebrate fauna of Rhaetian age. It was acquired by an anonymous private collector, who notified authorities and the specimen was eventually prepared and named as ''Rhaeticosaurus mertensi'' in 2017.

Description

Based on the holotype, ''Rhaeticosaurus'' grew up to when fully grown.

References

Triassic plesiosaurs Sauropterygian genera Fossil taxa described in 2017 {{plesiosaur-stub