Cryptoclidus Seeley, 1892

Sauropterygia > Eosauropterygia > Eusauropterygia > Pistosauroidea > Plesiosauria > Plesiosauroidea > Euplesiosauria > Cryptocleidoidea > Cryptoclididae

Synonyms

'Apractocleidus' Smellie, 1916. (see discussion)

C. eurymerus Phillips, 1871 (type species)

Species synonyms

C. 'oxoniensis'

Material

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C. 'oxoniensis' = eurymerus. Postcard from the Paris Musee de Paleontologie.

Cryptoclidus in the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, Scotland. Photograph by Adam S. Smith. 2007.

Young individual of Cryptoclidus, Natural History Museum, London. Photo by Adam S. Smith 2005.

Adult Cryptoclidus, American Museum of Natural History, New York. Photo by Adam S. Smith, 2006.

3D 'bust' of a Cryptoclidus head in the York Museum. Photograph by Adam S. Smith. 2005.

Cryptoclidus model in the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, Scotland. Photograph by Adam S. Smith. 2007.

Reconstruction of the skeleton of C. eurymerus (from Brown, 1981).

C. richardsoni (Lydekker, 1889) C. richardsoni differs from C. eurymerus only in the form of the humerus which exhibits greater expansion.

Material

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Distribution

Lower Oxford Clay, Late Jurassic of Dorset, (England).

Discussion

Cryptoclidus is often mis-spelled 'Cryptocleidus' after a mistake made by Andrews (1909).

This is a moderately sized (up to 3 meters long) plesiosaur known from a large number of individuals. Fossils include a complete ontogenetic sequence from very young to old adult individuals, making Cryptoclidus one of the most studied and best understood plesiosaurs. The genus has diagnostic teeth with reduced ornamentation of which there are 6 in each premaxilla. Cryptoclidus lacks suborbital fenestrae on the palate and ectopterygoids and the palate has large anterior and posterior interpterygoid vacuities. A small foramen is located along the postorbital-squamosal junction in C. eurymerus. Cryptoclidus used its numerous sharp teeth to catch squid and fish or perhaps to sift the silty sediment sea-bed for benthic animals such as crustaceans. A full skeletal restoration of Cryptoclidus can be seen in most major museums including the Musee Palaeontologique in Paris, France; the Natural History Museum, London, England; the Hunterian Museum, Scotland, and the American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA..

'Apractocleidus teretipes ' was introduced by Smellie (1916) for what is now considered to be an old-adult specimen of Cryptoclidus.

page last updated Sept. 2007. Adam Stuart Smith