Thalassomedon
Encyclopedia
Thalassomedon is a genus
of plesiosaur
, named by Welles in 1943. Greek, thalassa, "sea" and Greek
, medon, "lord, ruler": Sea lord.
strata of the Late Cretaceous
rock. Its closest relative is the Elasmosaurus
and together they make up the family Elasmosauridae
. There are six specimens of varying state of preservation on display at various U.S.
museums.
With a length of 12 metres (39.4 ft), the neck comprises 62 vertebrae about 6 metres (19.7 ft) or half the animal. The skull is 47 centimetres (18.5 in) long, with 5 centimetres (2 in) long teeth. The flippers were about 1.5 – long. Stones have been found in its stomach area leading some to theorize that they were used for ballast or digestion
. If the latter, stomach action causes the stones to help grind ingested food.
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of plesiosaur
Plesiosaur
Plesiosauroidea is an extinct clade of carnivorous plesiosaur marine reptiles. Plesiosauroids, are known from the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods...
, named by Welles in 1943. Greek, thalassa, "sea" and Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, medon, "lord, ruler": Sea lord.
Introduction
This genus of plesiosaur occurred in North America about 95 mya. It occurs in the CenomanianCenomanian
The Cenomanian is, in the ICS' geological timescale the oldest or earliest age of the Late Cretaceous epoch or the lowest stage of the Upper Cretaceous series. An age is a unit of geochronology: it is a unit of time; the stage is a unit in the stratigraphic column deposited during the corresponding...
strata of the Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous period is divided in the geologic timescale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous series...
rock. Its closest relative is the Elasmosaurus
Elasmosaurus
Elasmosaurus + σαυρος sauros 'lizard') is a genus of plesiosaur with an extremely long neck that lived in the Late Cretaceous period , 80.5 million years ago.-Description:...
and together they make up the family Elasmosauridae
Elasmosauridae
Elasmosauridae was the family of plesiosaurs. They had the longest necks of the plesiosaurs and survived from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous. They had a diet of fish and shelless cephalopods.-Size:...
. There are six specimens of varying state of preservation on display at various U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
museums.
Anatomy
Digestion
Digestion is the mechanical and chemical breakdown of food into smaller components that are more easily absorbed into a blood stream, for instance. Digestion is a form of catabolism: a breakdown of large food molecules to smaller ones....
. If the latter, stomach action causes the stones to help grind ingested food.
