Prehistoric Models: Nothosaurs
Nothosaurs are members of an extinct order of marine reptile classified as Sauropterygians, related to plesiosaurs and pliosaurs. With a diet of fish and squids, they had a very similar lifestyles to modern seals, marine with the ability come ashore. It is believed that nothosaur-like reptiles were ancestral to the more completely marine plesiosaurs, which replaced them at the end of the Triassic Period. To see my cast model of a Nothosaur click here.
Kingdom: Animalia – Phylum: Chordata – Superclass: Tetrapoda – Class: Reptilia – Clade: Diapsida – Superorder: Sauropterygia – Order: Nothosauroidea – Family: Nothosauridae
(nothosaurs)
Triassic Period
Genus: Nothosaurus “false lizard“
Genus pronounced: No-foe-sore-us
Species: N. mirabilis (type), N. cristatus, N. cymatosauroides, N. edingerae, N. giganteus, N. haasi, N. jagisteus, N. juvenilis, N. marchicus, N. procerus, N. rostellatus, N. tchernovi, N. winterswijkensis, N. yangjuanensis, N. youngi, N. zhangi
Named by: Münster - 1834
Classification: Family: Nothosauridae – Subfamily: Nothosaurinae
Time: Triassic (Anisian to Norian)
Locality: North Africa, Europe, and China
Size: 4 to 7 meters long.
Diet: Piscivore/Carnivore
Genus: Nothosaurus “false lizard“
Genus pronounced: No-foe-sore-us
Species: N. mirabilis (type), N. cristatus, N. cymatosauroides, N. edingerae, N. giganteus, N. haasi, N. jagisteus, N. juvenilis, N. marchicus, N. procerus, N. rostellatus, N. tchernovi, N. winterswijkensis, N. yangjuanensis, N. youngi, N. zhangi
Named by: Münster - 1834
Classification: Family: Nothosauridae – Subfamily: Nothosaurinae
Time: Triassic (Anisian to Norian)
Locality: North Africa, Europe, and China
Size: 4 to 7 meters long.
Diet: Piscivore/Carnivore
