Kronosaurus

Kronosaurus
Temporal range: Lower Cretaceous
Harvard Museum of Natural History:
restored with too many vertebrae
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Reptilia
Order:
Plesiosauria
Family:
Pliosauridae
Genus:
Kronosaurus

Longman, 1924
K. queenslandicus scale diagram, showing the size of the restored Harvard skeleton with a more accurate estimate
another species

Kronosaurus was a large pliosaur, one of the largest. It is named after the leader of the Greek Titans, Kronos. It lived in the Lower Cretaceous.

Body-length estimates, based on the 1959 Harvard reconstruction, had put the total length of Kronosaurus at 12.8 meters (42 feet). However, a recent study compared fossil specimens of Kronosaurus to other pliosaurs. The Harvard reconstruction may have included too many vertebrae, exaggerating its length. Its true length was probably only 9–10.9 meters (30–36 feet).

References

  1. ↑ Longman H.A. 1924. A new gigantic marine reptile from the Queensland Cretaceous, Kronosaurus queenslandicus new genus and species. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 8: 26–28.
  2. ↑ Hampe O. 1992. Ein großwüchsiger Pliosauride (Reptilia: Plesiosauria) aus der Unterkreide (oberes Aptium) von Kolumbien. Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 145: 1-32.
  3. ↑ Romer A.S. & Lewis A.D. 1959. A mounted skeleton of the giant plesiosaur Kronosaurus. Breviora 112: 1-15.
  4. ↑ Kear B.P. 2003. Cretaceous marine reptiles of Australia: a review of taxonomy and distribution. Cretaceous Research 24: 277–303.
  5. ↑ McHenry, Colin R. 2009. Devourer of Gods: the palaeoecology of the Cretaceous pliosaur Kronosaurus queenslandicus. The University of Newcastle, N.S.W. Australia, Web. Archived 2013-10-15 at the Wayback Machine

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