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Paleontologists have actually determined an uncommon brand-new genus and types of early-diverging plesiosauroid plesiosaur from an almost total skeleton discovered in the Lower Jurassic Posidonia Shale of Holzmaden, Germany.
Life restoration of Plesionectes longicollumImage credit: Peter Nickolaus.
The newly-identified types, Plesionectes longicollumresided in the Early Jurassic seas around 183 million years earlier.
The marine reptile was approximately 3.2 m in length with a 1.25-m long neck and 81-cm long tail.
Its skeleton with residues of fossilized soft tissue was initially excavated in 1978 from a quarry in the Posidonia Shale, Holzmaden, Germany, however its special physiological functions have actually just now been totally acknowledged through extensive clinical analysis.
“This specimen has actually remained in collections for years, however previous research studies never ever totally explored its unique anatomy,” stated Dr. Sven Sachs, a paleontologist at the Naturkunde-Museum Bielefeld.
“Our in-depth evaluation exposed an uncommon mix of skeletal functions that plainly differentiate it from all formerly understood plesiosaurs.”
Skeleton of Plesionectes longicollumScale bar– 30 cm. Image credit: S. Sachs & D. Madzia, doi: 10.7717/ peerj.19665.
Plesionectes longicollum is especially substantial as it represents the earliest recognized plesiosaur from the Holzmaden location.
” This discovery includes another piece to the puzzle of marine environment advancement throughout an important time in Earth’s history,” stated Dr. Daniel Madzia, a paleontologist at the Polish Academy of Sciences.
“The early Toarcian duration when this animal lived was marked by substantial ecological modifications, consisting of a significant oceanic anoxic occasion that impacted marine life worldwide.”
The discovery shows that the Posidonia Shale– currently popular for its extremely maintained fossils– consisted of even higher marine reptile variety than formerly acknowledged.
“The Posidonia Shale at Holzmaden has actually formerly yielded 5 other plesiosaur types, consisting of agents from all 3 significant plesiosaur family trees,” the authors stated.
“This brand-new addition even more seals the development’s status as one of the world’s essential windows into Jurassic marine life.”
The findings appear online in the journal PeerJ
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S. Sachs & & D. Madzia. 2025. An uncommon early-diverging plesiosauroid from the Lower Jurassic Posidonia Shale of Holzmaden, Germany. PeerJ 13: e19665; doi: 10.7717/ peerj.19665
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