Abyssosaurus

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Abyssosaurus
Temporal range:
Ma
↓
Life restoration
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Superorder: †Sauropterygia
Order: †Plesiosauria
Family: †Cryptoclididae
Genus: †Abyssosaurus
Berezin, 2011
Type species
†Abyssosaurus nataliae
Berezin, 2011

Abyssosaurus is an

bathyal zone.[2]

Discovery

Abyssosaurus is known only from the

cryptoclidid closely related to Colymbosaurus.[1]

Description

Abyssosaurus was a large plesiosaur, measuring 7 metres (23 ft) long.[3] Its skull length was about 30 centimetres (12 in) and neck length was about half its body length, which would be approximately 3.5 metres (11 ft).[4][3]

In 2019, Alexander Yu Berezin described the overall anatomy of Abyssosaurus in great detail. The

cryptoclidids. The overall skull is extremely short and triangular.[2]

Abyssosaurus's gastralia exhibit pachyostosis, apparently with the sole purpose of making the animal less buoyant.[2] Indeed, O'Keefe et al noted that such a build would make a plesiosaur more resistant to turbulence, allowing it to maintain stability.[5] The flippers, too, display pachyostosis, and rear flippers of Abyssosaurus were longer than the front flippers. This is a trait also seen in other colymbosaurines.[2] Based on this, Berezin suggests that Abyssosaurus and other colymbosaurines were efficient divers, able to hover in a diagonal position above the seabed while searching for food.[2]

Taxonomy

Initially, it was suggested that Abyssosaurus was intermediate between

elasmosaurids. Later analysis suggests that it was a colymbosaurine cryptoclidid.[6] Below is a phylogenetic tree of the Cryptoclididae, after Benson & Bowdler (2014):[6]

Palaeobiology

In an attempt to explain the peculiar anatomy of Abyssosaurus, Berezin noted that adaptation to cold, harsh,

cephalopods, were present in this environment.[2]

See also

References

  1. ^
    S2CID 19710180
    .
  2. ^ a b c d e f g A. Yu. Berezin 2019 "Morphofunctional features of the plesiosaur Abyssosaurus nataliae (Plesiosauroidea: Plesiosauria) in connection with adaptations to a deep-water lifestyle." Ministry of National Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation [in Russian].
  3. ^
    S2CID 129045087
    .
  4. S2CID 91151554
    .
  5. ^ O'Keefe, FR; Street, HP; Wilhelm, BC; Richards, C; Zhu, H; 2011 "A new skeleton of the cryptoclidid plesiosaur Tatenectes laramiensis reveals a novel body shape among plesiosaurs." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 31 (2): 330–339.
  6. ^ a b Benson, RBJ; Bowdler, T; 2014 "Anatomy of Colymbosaurus megadeirus (Reptilia: Plesiosauria) from the Kimmeridge Clay Formation of the UK, and high diversity among Late Jurassic plesiosauroids." Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology. 34 (5): 1053–1071.
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