Genus
Valid Extinct

Plotosaurus

Camp 1951

Plotosaurus is an extinct genus of large mosasaurs which lived during the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) in what is now North America. The taxon was initially described by Berkeley paleontologist Charles Lewis Camp in 1942 from several more or less complete fossil specimens discovered in California, USA. Originally named as Kolposaurus, it was changed to Plotosaurus in 1951 when Camp discovered that the name had already been assigned to a type of nothosaur. Two species were historically assigned to the genus, but since 2008, only P. bennisoni has been recognized as valid.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
9
Group
Mosasaures
Carnivore aquatic Terrestrial
Plotosaurus
click to enlarge
Photo montage of different specimens of mosasaurs: Opetiosaurus Vallecillosaurus Halisaurus Plotosaurus Platecarpus Tylosaurus © FunkMonk Karkemish Gnedoghedo [1] MCDinosaurhunter [2] · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia
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PBDB ↗ Wikipedia ↗
Classification
Mosasauridae Family
›
Mosasaurinae Subfamily
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Mosasaurini Tribe
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Plotosaurus Genus
Measurements
Length
9 m ⓘ
Fossil sites 9 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇺🇸 United States
6
🇯🇵 Japan
2
🇨🇱 Chile
1
Geological formations
Moreno
6
Hiraiso
1
Isoai
1
Quiriquina
1
Temporal distribution
Maastrichtian (72.2–66 Ma)
8
Campanian (83.6–72.2 Ma)
1
Species (2)
Plotosaurus bennisoni 72 Ma
Plotosaurus tuckeri 72 Ma
Synonyms (2)
Garzasaurus nomen nudum Plotosaurus
Kolposaurus replaced by Plotosaurus
Images 10
Bibliography
Original description
J. J., Jr. Sepkoski. 2002. A compendium of fossil marine animal genera. Bulletins of American Paleontology 363:1-560
Bibliography (5)
T. Kato, Y. Nakajima, and K. Shiseki, H. Ando. 2021. Advanced mosasaurs from the Upper Cretaceous Nakaminato Group in Japan. Island Arc 30:e12431 DOI ↗
E. Frey, E. W. A. Mulder, and W. Stinnesbeck, C. Salazar, L. A. H. Quinzio-Sinn. 2016. A mosasaur, cf. Plotosaurus, from the upper Maastrichtian Quiriquina Formation in Central Chile. Cretaceous Research 61:17-25 DOI ↗
J. Lindgren, M. W. Caldwell, and J. W. Jagt. 2008. New data on the postcranial anatomy of the California mosasaur Plotosaurus bennisoni (Camp, 1942) (Upper Cretaceous: Maastrichtian), and the taxonomic status of P. tuckeri (Camp, 1942). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 28(4):1043-1054 DOI ↗
K. Workman Ford. 2006. Stratigraphic positions of marine reptile and dinosaur specimens in the Moreno Formation, in the Tumey Hills and Panoche Hills, Fresno County, California. Late Cretaceous Vertebrates from the Western Interior. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 35:407-410
C. L. Camp. 1942. California mosasaurs. Memoirs of the University of California 13(1):1-68