#pliosauria

[makairodonx]

A huge 6-meter-long Liopleurodon ferox ambushes an unfortunate juvenile Cryptoclidus and camps its toothy jaws upon the small plesiosaur’s head 160 million years ago in the warm, shallow seas of what is now the Oxford Clay Formation of England.

[ancientmarinereptiles]

Hauffiosaurus zanoni‭‬,‭ ‬H.‭ ‬longirostris,‭ ‬H.‭ ‬tomistomimus

Photo by: Ghedoghedo [CC BY-SA 3.0  (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], from Wikimedia Commons

Name: Hauffiosaurus zanoni‭‬,‭ ‬H.‭ ‬longirostris,‭ ‬H.‭ ‬tomistomimus

Name Meaning: Hauff’s lizard

First Described: 2001

Described By: O’Keefe

Classification: Chordata, Tetrapoda, Reptilia, Sauropterygia,‭ ‬Plesiosauria, Pliosauria

Hauffiosaurus lived during the Early Jurassic Period, and was found in England’s Whitby Mudstone Formation and in ‬Germany’s‭ ‬‬Posidonia Shale Formation. As you can see in the photo, the holotype specimen is almost complete. However, the outline of the body that you see was formed when this fossil specimen was being prepared. It was approximately 3.5 to 5 meters (11 to 16 feet) in length. There is still questions about where fits within its classification, but some believe it fits in pliosauriodea.

Sources:

http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/h/hauffiosaurus.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hauffiosaurus