Genus
Valid Extinct

Selmasaurus

Wright and Shannon 1988

Selmasaurus is an extinct genus of marine lizard belonging to the mosasaur family. It is classified as part of the Plioplatecarpinae subfamily alongside genera like Angolasaurus and Platecarpus. Two species are known, S. russelli and S. johnsoni; both are exclusively known from Santonian deposits in the United States.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
2
Group
Mosasaures
Carnivore aquatic Terrestrial
Selmasaurus
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Selmasaurus johnsoni mounted skull in the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center in Woodland Park, Colorado © MCDinosaurhunter · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia
PBDB ↗ Wikipedia ↗
Classification
Mosasauridae Family
›
Plioplatecarpinae Subfamily
›
Selmasaurini Unranked clade
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Selmasaurus Genus
Fossil sites 2 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇺🇸 United States
2
Geological formations
Niobrara
1
Mooreville Chalk
1
Temporal distribution
Campanian (83.6–72.2 Ma)
1
Santonian (85.7–83.6 Ma)
1
Species (2)
Selmasaurus johnsoni 86 Ma
Selmasaurus russelli 86 Ma
Images 1
Bibliography
Original description
K. R. Wright and S. W. Shannon. 1988. Selmasaurus russelli, a new plioplatecarpine mosasaur (Squamata, Mosasauridae) from Alabama. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 8(1):102-107 DOI ↗
Bibliography (2)
M. J. Polcyn and M. J. Everhart. 2008. Description and phylogenetic analysis of a new species of Selmasaurus (Mosasauridae: Plioplatecarpinae) from the Niobrara Chalk of Western Kansas. Proceedings of the second Mosasaur Meeting
K. R. Wright and S. W. Shannon. 1988. Selmasaurus russelli, a new plioplatecarpine mosasaur (Squamata, Mosasauridae) from Alabama. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 8(1):102-107 DOI ↗