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Plesiosauria

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A serpent threaded through the shell of a turtle ~ attributed by Gideon Mantell to Adam Sedgwick

Plesiosauria or Plesiosaurs (Greek: πλησίος (plesios), 'near to' and σαῦρος (sauros), 'lizard') are an order or clade of extinct Mesozoic marine reptiles, belonging to the Sauropterygia.

Plesiosaurs first appeared in the Late Triassic, possibly in the Rhaetian stage, about 203 million years ago. They became especially common during the Jurassic Period, thriving until their disappearance due to the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, about 66 million years ago. They had a worldwide oceanic distribution, and some species at least partly inhabited freshwater environments.

Plesiosaurs were among the first fossil reptiles discovered. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, scientists realised how distinctive their build was and they were named as a separate order in 1835. The first plesiosaurian genus, the eponymous Plesiosaurus, was named in 1821. Since then, more than a hundred valid species have been described.

Scientific quotes

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Plesiosaurus

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That so considerable a Rarity ... should be maim'd and imperfect ~ William Stukeley
Yet we may content our selves if enough be still visible to favour a Conjecture of what it has been ~ William Stukeley
  • A snake drawn through the shell of a turtle
    • Mike Everhart, "'A snake drawn through the shell of a turtle'". Oceans of Kansas (7 September 2009) (14 October 2005)
      • ... a comparison with the paddles of the sea turtle will exhibit such fresh analogies as to indicate that in respect of the various forms of animal extremities, the Plesiosaurus holds as it were a middle place between it and the Ichthyosaurus; for we may remark in the first carpal series of the turtle three bones not unlike those of the Plesiosaurus; ...
      • In its motion this animal must have resembled the turtle more than any other; and the turtle also, as was before remarked, could we divest it of its shelly case, would present some slight approach in its general proportions to the plesiosaurus.
      • To the head of a lizard, it united the teeth of a crocodile; a neck of enormous length, resembling the body of a serpent; a trunk and tail having the proportions of any ordinary quadruped, the ribs of a chamaeleon and the paddles of a whale.
      • The reptile combines in its structure the head of a lizard with teeth like those of a crocodile, a neck resembling the body of serpent, a trunk and tail resembling of the proportions of a quadruped, with paddles like those of turtles.
      • The animals of this genus present in their osteological structure a remarkable deviation from all known recent and fossil reptiles ; uniting the characters of the head of a lizard, with the teeth of a crocodile, to a neck of inordinate length, with such modifications of the ribs, the pectoral and pelvic arches, and the paddles, as to justify the graphic simile of Professor Sedgwick, that the Plesiosaurus might be compared to a serpent threaded through the shell of a turtle.
        • Gideon Mantell, The Medals of Creation, Bohn's Scientific Library, 2nd ed., Vol. 2 (London: Henry G. Bohn, [1844]), p. 671
      • Amongst the many figurative illustrations of the nature of the Plesiosaur in which popular writers have indulged, that which compares it to a snake threaded through the trunk of a turtle is the most striking; but the number of vertebrae in the Plesiosaur is no true indication of affinity with the ophidian order of reptiles.
      • Un auteur l’a comparé à un serpent caché dans la carapace d’une tortue. Remarquons toutefois qu’il n’y a pas ici de carapace. Le plèsiosaure a la tête du lézard, les dents du crocodile, un cou d’une longueur démesurée, qui ressemble au corps d'un serpent, les côtes du caméléon, un tronc et une queue dont les proportions sont celles d’un quadrupède ordinaire, enfin les nageoires de la baleine.
      • ... dass man Plesiosaurus mit einer durch einen Schildkrõtenpanzer gezogenen Schlange vegleich ...
      • It was Dean Buckland who facetiously likened the plesiosaurs to a snake threaded through the shell of a turtle, and the simile was not an inapt one in his day. The vernacular designation of them—long-necked lizards—conveys the same impression of their chief peculiarity, but the name is less applicable than it once was, since recent discoveries have brought to light forms with a relatively short neck.
      • The description of a plesiosaur as “a snake threaded through the body of a turtle,” has variously been attributed to Conybeare, De la Beche, Mantell, Owen, and both William Buckland and his son Frank, but its actual origin remains a mystery.
  • It cannot but be matter of regret, that so considerable a Rarity, the like whereof has not been observ'd before in this Island (to my knowledge) should be maim'd and imperfect, yet we may content our selves if enough be still visible to favour a Conjecture of what it has been.

Other genera

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With the evidence of Peloneustes ... we now have an almost continuous chain connecting the genus Plesiosaurus with Pliosaurus ~ Richard Lydekker
  • With the evidence of Peloneustes before us we now have an almost continuous chain connecting the genus Plesiosaurus with Pliosaurus, the course of evolution being directed towards a gradual increase in the size of the head, in the length of the mandibular symphysis, and the size and specialization of the teeth, accompanied by a shortening of the neck, which is accomplished by a reduction both in the number and length of the component vertebræ, and also by a tendency to a loose attachment between the centra, arches, and cervical ribs of the vertebræ, and a reduction in the relative length of the epipodial bones of the limbs. That Peloneustes philarchus is the direct ancestor of Pliosaurus is, however, improbable, seeing that the latter genus is already represented in the Oxford Clay. Finally, while Pliosaurus forms the culmination of the series just indicated, the genus Polyptychodon appears to have been the latest development of the series of which the middle term is represented by Cimoliosaurus.
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The Great Sea-Serpents, the frightful Dragons of Dead Times ~ Thomas Hawkins
The monster is wounded to death ~ Jules Verne
Here and there high serpent heads projected out of the water ~ Arthur Conan Doyle
  • These unparalleled phenomena demand a Style and Title of their own. Throughout the Greek, and Latin, and all the derivative Languages living, float traditional notices of a supposed Chimaera, under the term Dragon. Backing this word through the more ancient Semitic Tongues, we come at last to its root in the most ancient of all, the blessed Hebrew. There, in the Inspired Annals of Earth, we read of the Gedolim Taninim, the Great Sea-Serpents, the frightful Dragons of Dead Times, the long-lost Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri, of which we treat.
  • «L’autre, c’est un serpent caché dans la carapace d’une tortue, le terrible ennemi du premier, le plesiosaurus!»
    • Jules Verne, Voyage au centre de la Terre (Paris: J. Hetzel & Co., 1867), Chapter 33
      • "The other is a monstrous serpent, concealed under the hard vaulted shell of the turtle, the terrible enemy of its fearful rival, the Plesiosaurus, or sea crocodile."
      • The other was the mighty Plesiosaurus, a serpent with a cylindrical trunk, with a short stumpy tail, with fins like a bank of oars in a Roman galley. Its whole body covered by a carapace or shell, and its neck, as flexible as that of a swan, rose more than thirty feet above the waves, a tower of animated flesh!
      • Suddenly, at no great distance from us, an enormous mass rises out of the waters—the head of the great Plesiosaurus. The terrible monster is now wounded unto death. I can see nothing now of his enormous body. All that could be distinguished was his serpent-like neck, which he twisted and curled in all the agonies of death. Now he struck the waters with it as if it had been a gigantic whip, and then again wriggled like a worm cut in two. The water was spurted up to a great distance in all directions. A great portion of it swept over our raft and nearly blinded us. But soon the end of the beast approached nearer and nearer
      • "The other is a plesiosaurus (almost lizard), a serpent, armoured with the carapace and the paddles of a turtle; he is the dreadful enemy of the other."
      • The plesiosaurus, a serpent with a cylindrical body and a short tail, has four flappers or paddles to act like oars. Its body is entirely covered with a thick armour of scales, and its neck, as flexible as a swan's, rises thirty feet above the waves.
      • All at once an enormous head is darted up, the head of the plesiosaurus. The monster is wounded to death. I no longer see his scaly armour. Only his long neck shoots up, drops again, coils and uncoils, droops, lashes the waters like a gigantic whip, and writhes like a worm that you tread on. The water is splashed for a long way around. The spray almost blinds us. But soon the reptile's agony draws to an end; its movements become fainter, its contortions cease to be so violent, and the long serpentine form lies a lifeless log on the labouring deep.
  • That monster could have been no other than the Plesiosaurus, one of the most wonderful animals that has ever existed. Imagine a thing with the head of a lizard, the teeth of a crocodile, the neck of a swan, the trunk and tail of a quadruped, and the fins of a whale. Imagine a whale with its head and neck consisting of a serpent, with the strength of the former and the malignant fury of the latter, and then you will have the plesiosaurus. It was an aquatic animal, yet it had to remain near or on the surface of the water, while its long, serpent-like neck enabled it to reach its prey above or below with swift, far-reaching darts. Yet it had no armor, and could not have been at all a match for the ichthyosaurus.
    • James DeMille, A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder (1888), Chapter 17. Belief and Unbelief
  • But it was different out upon the rose-tinted waters of the central lake. It boiled and heaved with strange life. Great slate-colored backs and high serrated dorsal fins shot up with a fringe of silver, and then rolled down into the depths again. The sand-banks far out were spotted with uncouth crawling forms, huge turtles, strange saurians, and one great flat creature like a writhing, palpitating mat of black greasy leather, which flopped its way slowly to the lake. Here and there high serpent heads projected out of the water, cutting swiftly through it with a little collar of foam in front, and a long swirling wake behind, rising and falling in graceful, swan-like undulations as they went. It was not until one of these creatures wriggled on to a sand-bank within a few hundred yards of us, and exposed a barrel-shaped body and huge flippers behind the long serpent neck, that Challenger, and Summerlee, who had joined us, broke out into their duet of wonder and admiration.
    "Plesiosaurus! A fresh-water plesiosaurus!" cried Summerlee. "That I should have lived to see such a sight! We are blessed, my dear Challenger, above all zoologists since the world began!"
  • During the Cretaceous Period many of the inland seas dried up, leaving the Plesiosaurs stranded without any fish. Just about that time Mother Nature scrapped the whole Age of Reptiles and called for a new deal. And you can see what she got. [Footnote: Here we see the working of another Law of Nature: No water, no fish.]
    • Will Cuppy, How to Become Extinct (1941), "The Plesiosaur"
  • Since none of the creatures of the sea were taken on Noah's ark, there would be a strong possibility that some plesiosaurs and maybe even some ichthyosaurs survived the Flood. The violent and turbulent waters of the Flood would surely have killed and buried many of the sea creatures (over 90 percent of fossils found are of marine animals). However, if some had survived the Flood and lived on in the seas for years after, they could help account for many of the legends of sea monsters that have been gathered from all over the world. Remote as it may seem, there could even be the possibility that a few have survived till modern times. After all, it's much easier to believe that they could have survived for several thousand years rather than for nearly a hundred-million years.
    • Ken Ham, Great Dinosaur Mystery Solved! (2000)
      • ... thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
        • Psalm 74:13 (KJV)
      • ... and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.
        • Isaiah 27:1 (KJV)

Film and television

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This is what happens when you cross a plesiosaur with Adele ~ JBL
  • Michael Cole: [on Brodus Clay's entrance] A funky start to the Survivor Series.
    John "Bradshaw" Layfield: "Funky"'s a kind word. This is what happens when you cross a plesiosaur with Adele. This is the offspring.
    Michael: What are you talking about?
    JBL: A plesiosaur, from the Cretaceous period.
    Michael: No, I mean Adele's a singer, not a dancer.
    JBL: Okay, Kirstie Alley.
  • [while Bowen fights a Plesiosaur]
    Servo: So that creature's probably endangered, right?
    Crow: Oh yeah, for sure. Last of its kind, a priceless treasure, his sweat cures cancer, blah blah blah. Kill it! Kill it!
    • Mystery Science Theater 3000, Season 11 (2017), Episode 7: The Land That Time Forgot
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