Liopleurodon
Liopleurodon ferox
Liopleurodon represents the large pliosaurid predators that inhabited Jurassic seas.
Image: Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
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Characteristics
- Scientific name
- Liopleurodon ferox
- Period
- Middle Jurassic (Callovian)
- Lived
- 165–155 Ma (165 million years ago)
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Habitat
- Open sea
- Length (estimate)
- 6 m
Description
Liopleurodon was a pliosaur with a large head, short neck and four powerful paddle-like limbs. Its jaws bore conical teeth suited to catching fish and other marine reptiles. Many popular estimates make it much larger than the better-supported fossils indicate; its length remains uncertain because the remains are incomplete. Like other pliosaurs, it spent its entire life at sea.
Habitat
Open seas and coastal waters of the European archipelago.
Fossil sites
Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
Oxford Clay Formation
Cultural profile: United Kingdom →
Contemporaries in the database
Sources: Liopleurodon