Mauriciosaurus fernandezi

Mauriciosaurus is a genus of polycotylid plesiosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Mexico. It contains a single species, M. fernandezi, described in 2017 by Eberhard Frey and colleagues from a single well-preserved juvenile specimen about 2 metres long. Morphologically, it is overall most similar to the polycotyline polycotylids Trinacromerum and Dolichorhynchops. However, several features separate Mauriciosaurus from all other polycotylids, warranting the naming of a new genus. These include the sophisticated pattern of ridges on the bottom of the parasphenoid bone on its palate; the narrow openings in the palate bordered by the pterygoid bones; the lack of perforations in the surface of the coracoid; and the highly unusual arrangement of gastralia, or belly ribs, which is only otherwise seen in the non-polycotylid Cryptoclidus.

Mauriciosaurus fernandezi

Carpenter, Kenneth · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
MauriciosaurusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Plesiosauria
Life habit
aquatic, depth=surfacePBDB, for Plesiosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Plesiosauria
Environment
marinePBDB, for Plesiosauria

Time the record covers

At most 4.1 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 93.9 Mya and 89.8 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Late Cretaceous — about 1 of 1 occurrenceLate Cretaceous94–94 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences94–94 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences94–94 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences94–93 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences93–93 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences93–93 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences93–93 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences93–93 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences93–93 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences93–92 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences92–92 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences92–92 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences92–92 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences92–92 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences92–92 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences92–91 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences91–91 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences91–91 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences91–91 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences91–91 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences91–90 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences90–90 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences90–90 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences90–90 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences90–90 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences90–90 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences94.4 Mya89.3 Mya

1 occurrence of Mauriciosaurus fernandezi on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

1 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Agua Nueva — 26.66°N, 100.04°W

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The named rock units Mauriciosaurus fernandezi has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Mauriciosaurus fernandezi and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Mauriciosaurus fernandezi and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

4 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Mauriciosaurus fernandezi, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Mauriciosaurus fernandezi

Credit
Carpenter, Kenneth
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Mauriciosaurus fernandezi was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMauriciosaurus through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Frey et al. 2017