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After three... long... grueling years... I finally finished it. Pliosaurus is done. I will never be doing an obscure marine reptile from now on (for free at least).
Take note: the limbs here are dislocated, in order to show them without perspective. If you wish to restore this beasty using my skeletal, make sure to account for this and un-dislocate them, Pliosaurus will thank you.
Now, for the very long list of references:
- Benson, Roger BJ, et al. "A giant pliosaurid skull from the Late Jurassic of England." Plos One 8.5 (2013): e65989. (for skull)
- Tarlo, L. B. "Stretosaurus gen. nov., a giant pliosaur from the Kimmeridge Clay." Palaeontology 2.1 (1959): 39-55. (for much of the postcrania)
- Wells, Calvin. "Pathological epipodials and tarsus in Stretosaurus macromerus from the Kimmeridge Clay, Stretham, Cambridgeshire." Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 120.1-4 (1964): 299-302. (more postcrania)
- Tarlo, L. B. "The scapula of Pliosaurus macromerus Phillips." Palaeontology 1.3 (1958): 193-199. (says it in the name - although the "scapula" here is actually the ilium)
- Barrientos Lara, Jair Israel, Marta Susana Fernandez, and Jesus Alvarado Ortega. "Kimmeridgian pliosaurids (Sauropterygia, Plesiosauria) from Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca, southern Mexico." (2015). (neural spines for the dorsals)
- Taylor, Michael Alan, and A. R. I. Cruickshank. "Cranial anatomy and functional morphology of Pliosaurus brachyspondylus (Reptilia: Plesiosauria) from the Upper Jurassic of Westbury, Wiltshire." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences341.1298 (1993): 399-418. (size of the skull compared to the body, size of the pectoral and pelvic girdles)
- Andrews, C. W. "A Descriptive Catalogue of the Marine Reptiles of the Oxford Clay—Based on the Leeds Collection in the British Museum (Natural History), London, Part I. xxiii+ 10 pp." British Museum (Natural History), London (1910). (cervical neural spines, cervical centra)
- Smith, Adam S. "Morphology of the caudal vertebrae in Rhomaleosaurus zetlandicus and a review of the evidence for a tail fin in Plesiosauria." Paludicola 9.3 (2013): 144-158. (ribs, caudal neural spines)
- Knutsen, Espen M. "A taxonomic revision of the genus Pliosaurus (Owen, 1841a) Owen, 1841b." Norwegian Journal of Geology 92 (2012): 259-276. (vertebral count)
- Páramo-Fonseca, María Eurídice, et al. "Stenorhynchosaurus munozi, gen. et sp. nov. a new pliosaurid from the Upper Barremian (Lower Cretaceous) of Villa de Leiva, Colombia, South America." Revista de la Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales 40.154 (2016): 84-103. (vertebral count)
- Ketchum, Hilary F., and Roger BJ Benson. "The cranial anatomy and taxonomy of Peloneustes philarchus (Sauropterygia, Pliosauridae) from the Peterborough member (Callovian, Middle Jurassic) of the United Kingdom." Palaeontology 54.3 (2011): 639-665. (vertebral count, sclerotic ring proportions)
Take note: the limbs here are dislocated, in order to show them without perspective. If you wish to restore this beasty using my skeletal, make sure to account for this and un-dislocate them, Pliosaurus will thank you.
Now, for the very long list of references:
- Benson, Roger BJ, et al. "A giant pliosaurid skull from the Late Jurassic of England." Plos One 8.5 (2013): e65989. (for skull)
- Tarlo, L. B. "Stretosaurus gen. nov., a giant pliosaur from the Kimmeridge Clay." Palaeontology 2.1 (1959): 39-55. (for much of the postcrania)
- Wells, Calvin. "Pathological epipodials and tarsus in Stretosaurus macromerus from the Kimmeridge Clay, Stretham, Cambridgeshire." Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 120.1-4 (1964): 299-302. (more postcrania)
- Tarlo, L. B. "The scapula of Pliosaurus macromerus Phillips." Palaeontology 1.3 (1958): 193-199. (says it in the name - although the "scapula" here is actually the ilium)
- Barrientos Lara, Jair Israel, Marta Susana Fernandez, and Jesus Alvarado Ortega. "Kimmeridgian pliosaurids (Sauropterygia, Plesiosauria) from Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca, southern Mexico." (2015). (neural spines for the dorsals)
- Taylor, Michael Alan, and A. R. I. Cruickshank. "Cranial anatomy and functional morphology of Pliosaurus brachyspondylus (Reptilia: Plesiosauria) from the Upper Jurassic of Westbury, Wiltshire." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences341.1298 (1993): 399-418. (size of the skull compared to the body, size of the pectoral and pelvic girdles)
- Andrews, C. W. "A Descriptive Catalogue of the Marine Reptiles of the Oxford Clay—Based on the Leeds Collection in the British Museum (Natural History), London, Part I. xxiii+ 10 pp." British Museum (Natural History), London (1910). (cervical neural spines, cervical centra)
- Smith, Adam S. "Morphology of the caudal vertebrae in Rhomaleosaurus zetlandicus and a review of the evidence for a tail fin in Plesiosauria." Paludicola 9.3 (2013): 144-158. (ribs, caudal neural spines)
- Knutsen, Espen M. "A taxonomic revision of the genus Pliosaurus (Owen, 1841a) Owen, 1841b." Norwegian Journal of Geology 92 (2012): 259-276. (vertebral count)
- Páramo-Fonseca, María Eurídice, et al. "Stenorhynchosaurus munozi, gen. et sp. nov. a new pliosaurid from the Upper Barremian (Lower Cretaceous) of Villa de Leiva, Colombia, South America." Revista de la Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales 40.154 (2016): 84-103. (vertebral count)
- Ketchum, Hilary F., and Roger BJ Benson. "The cranial anatomy and taxonomy of Peloneustes philarchus (Sauropterygia, Pliosauridae) from the Peterborough member (Callovian, Middle Jurassic) of the United Kingdom." Palaeontology 54.3 (2011): 639-665. (vertebral count, sclerotic ring proportions)
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Comments15
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Thank you for this great work. I wonder however what head:body ratio you did use to make this reconstruction ?
For as I know, upper jurassic pliosaurs from kimmeridgian would most likely have an approximately 1:4 head to body ratio (and Doris pliosaur‘s ratio would apparently be closer from 1:4,5 but this needs to be verified in detail). This would give a length for the Dorset pliosaur at about 8-9 meters for a skull that is measuring around 2 meters.
So here is my question, how and on which fossils did you base your reconstruction ? Because I don’t seem to find in the references you gave us any reconstruction based on kimmeridgian pliosaur fossils that would give a ratio > 1:4 (skull that would be even longer than a quarter of the body).
Thank you so much for your answer and all your work.