Long before whales ruled the oceans, ancient bone-eating worms were already thriving on the seafloor, feasting on the ...

When large marine animals like whales die, they sink down to the seabed. Once their flesh has been stripped away by ...

Kronosaurus queenslandicus, a massive marine reptile, dominated the Eromanga Sea millions of years ago. Its powerful jaws, ...

Long-necked plesiosaurs, shark-shaped ichthyosaurs, toothy mosasaurs and many more saurians were swimming through the ancient seas, their success underwritten by a suite of anatomical specializations.

Compared with ichthyosaurs and marine crocodile relatives, plesiosaurs fossils are rare. The discovery therefore offers a rare glimpse into the biodiversity of these long-necked marine reptiles.

Plesiosaur Sheds Light on Marine Reptile Evolution During the Jurassic Period Meet Plesiopterys wildi, the marine reptile that may have been endemic to its region and may hold the key to understanding ...

A newly described plesiosaur fossil from southern Germany is providing crucial evidence about the diversification of these ancient marine reptiles during the Early Jurassic.

“We report a virtually complete plesiosaur from the Lower Jurassic (∼183 Ma)3 Posidonia Shale of Germany that preserves skin ...

The team originally theorized the skin might possess the dolphinlike, scaleless qualities of an ichthyosaur, but were surprised at what they found: areas of both scaly and smooth skin.

A remarkable plesiosaur fossil reveals that the extinct reptiles had scales like modern sea turtles, unlike the ichthyosaurs that lived during the same period ...

The research highlights an evolutionary detour that runs counter to other ancient marine reptiles like ichthyosaurs and mosasaurs, which evolved away from scales in favor of skin, or much smaller ...

Over 230 million years ago, long-necked plesiosaurs and dolphin-shaped ichthyosaurs dominated the oceans, from open water to the shallow coasts. But within 30 million years, many of these marine ...