| rdfs:comment
| - Plesiosaurs are a group of marine reptiles, including pliosaurs. The largest plesiosaur is Elasmosaurus.
- The Plesiosaurs (Plesiosauria) were a group of extinct reptiles, belonging to the sauropterigyians. They existed from the middle Triassic to the late Cretaceous, dwelling at the territories of modern Eurasia, Africa, Australia, America, etc, even Antarctica (that, admittedly, was less cold than now). The peak of the plesiosaur diversity was during the Jurassic, as featured in the 3rd episode of Walking with Dinosaurs, which featured both the long-necked plesiosaur Cryptoclidus and the short-necked pliosaur Liopleurodon.
|
| abstract
| - The Plesiosaurs (Plesiosauria) were a group of extinct reptiles, belonging to the sauropterigyians. They existed from the middle Triassic to the late Cretaceous, dwelling at the territories of modern Eurasia, Africa, Australia, America, etc, even Antarctica (that, admittedly, was less cold than now). The peak of the plesiosaur diversity was during the Jurassic, as featured in the 3rd episode of Walking with Dinosaurs, which featured both the long-necked plesiosaur Cryptoclidus and the short-necked pliosaur Liopleurodon. Being one of the most important group of carnivorous reptiles, the plesiosaurs played an important role in the marine ecosystems of the Mesozoic, similar to that of the modern pinniped mammals. Unlike them, however, and like the ichthyosaurs, the plesiosaurs also gave birth in the water, possibly caring for their offspring as well. There were three main groups of the plesiosaurs: the pliosaurs, represented by Liopleurodon and Plesiopleurodon (which appeared in a cameo in the 4th episode of Walking with Dinosaurs), the pistosaurids, and the plesiosaurs proper, represented by Cryptoclidus and Elasmosaurus from the last episode of Sea Monsters. Plesiosaurs had rather small heads, long necks and bulky bodies; the pliosaurs, conversely, had large heads, small necks, and were bigger in size that the plesiosaurs as well. Nevertheless, all of them had died out in the end of the Mesozoic, during the K/T extinction.
- Plesiosaurs are a group of marine reptiles, including pliosaurs. The largest plesiosaur is Elasmosaurus.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)