Thalassiodracon Storrs and Taylor, 1996

Classification

Sauropterygia > Eosauropterygia > Eusauropterygia > Pistosauroidea > Plesiosauria

T. hawkinsi (Owen, 1838) (Type and only species)

species synonyms: 'triatarsostinus'.

Material

Type: BMNH 2018*

Distribution

Uppermost Triassic or Lowermost Jurassic, Preplanorbis beds, Blue Lias Formation, Street, Somerset, England.

Images

A B C

Photographs of the holoytpe skeleton of Thalassiodracon hawkinsi (BMNH 2018*) (cast in the Bristol Museum (A,B) and of the original specimen in the NHM London (C)). A and C taken by A. S. Smith, B, taken by S. M. Clabby).

A referred specimen of Thalassiodracon (BMNH 2020*), also on display in the Natural History Musueum, London. (Photo by A. S. Smith)

Specimen of Thalassiodracon in storage in the Natural History Museum, London. (Photo by A. S. Smith).

Discussion

Although the species Plesiosaurus hawkinsi was introduced in 1838 for this small plesiosaurian from Street, Somerset, the new genus name was only applied decades later following an examination of a referred skull in Cambridge (CAMSM J.46986). Thalassiodracon means 'Sea Dragon' which, as Storrs and Taylor (1996) explain, "alludes to the colloquial description given to the Street marine reptile fauna by Hawkins" (p. 404). All three sprecimens pictured above were figured in Hawkins' "Book of the great Sea Dragons" (1840).

Thalassiodracon is frequently regarded as the most basal pliosauroid.