Post by LeopJag on Apr 29, 2013 3:22:33 GMT 5
OP'ed by Pliosaur.
Kronosaurus queenslandicus
Kronosaurus was one of the sea reptiles known as pliosaurs — a member of the plesiosaur group, but in the Pliosauridae family, with the distinctive feature of a much shorter, thicker neck. It was one of the largest pliosaurs.
Anatomy
Pliosaurs were more heavily built, more streamlined, and faster than other plesiosaurs, and were suited to catch fewer, larger meals with their massive jaws and rows of sharp teeth up to 25 cm (10 inches) long.
This picture shows a preparator (Arnie Lewis) working on the 9 foot long (3 meter) skull of Kronosaurus queenslandicus at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology.
The huge head, which was mostly mouth, also had large eyes and an offset pair of nostrils that gave it directional "water-sniffing" ability, as in other plesiosaurs. A pliosaur swam with all of its four limbs, which had evolved into long, wide, strong flippers, one at each corner of the elongated body. The tail was short and tapering, as in other plesiosaurs, and was perhaps used only for steering.
This photo shows the restored skeleton of Kronosaurus queenslandicus on exhibit at Harvard in 1959. The specimen was said to be about 42 feet in length, although there is some question regarding the addition of a number of dorsal vertebrae.
Size and Ecology
Kronosaurus lived in the Early Cretaceous Period. Most of its fossils are known from Australia, where they were first discovered in 1889 in Queensland, which was covered by shallow sea some 120 million years ago, though the most complete fossil to date was found in Villa de Leyva (Colombia) in 1977. The name was given in 1924 by Heber Longman. For many years, estimates put the total length of Kronosaurus at up to 13 meters (43 feet), but recent studies of its fossil skull and other parts, and comparisons with other pliosaurs, suggest that the true length was probably only 9–10 meters (30–33 feet). Other creatures preserved from the time include numerous fish and various molluscs such as squid, ammonites and belemnites. Some of their fossil shells bear tooth marks that could have been made by Kronosaurus, whose rear teeth were rounded and suited to crushing hard-cased victims.
The holotype specimen of the species K. queenslandicus was described by Longman in 1924, and is currently in the Queensland Museum. Hampe described a second species, K. boyacensis, in 1992 but the dubious state of the holotype specimen makes the assignment to the Kronosaurus genus uncertain.
by Wolf Eagle
Teeth
The teeth of Kronosaurus are large in length (exceeding 7 cm - the largest up to 30 cm long with 12 cm crowns). However, they lack carinae (cutting edges) and the distinct trihedral (three facets) of Pliosaurus and Liopleurodon teeth. The combination of large size, conical shape and lack of cutting edges allows for easy identification of Kronosaurus teeth in Cretaceous deposits from Australia.
Diet
Large, round bite-marks have been found on the skull of an Albian-age Australian elasmosaurid (Eromangasaurus) that could be from a Kronosaurus attack.
by Pliosaur
for the diet we can add to this that krnosaurus eat shark:
"One Kronosaurus specimen had shark vertebrae preserved at the back of the skull, possibly indicating that it choked while eating a shark."
Cretaceous Marine Reptiles
monster of Aramberri,cousin of kronosaurus?
We here describe the rostrum of a pliosaur from the Kimmeridgian of northeastern Mexico. The specimen comes from the Upper Jurassic La Casita Formation (Kimmeridgian - Tithonian) and represents one of the few Plesiosauria in the area. The internal anatomy of the specimen is partly visible through cross-sections, which reveal a hitherto undescribed rostral prolongation of a paired bone of the interorbital area, probably the parietal or frontal beneath the premaxillae. The specimen also provides new information on the morphology and function of the choanae. In light of these morphological data, the new pliosaur shows similarities both with the European Late Jurassic genus Pliosaurus and the Australian Early Cretaceous Kronosaurus.
An unusual pliosaur (Reptilia, Sauropterygia) from the Kimmeridgian (Upper Jurassic) of northeastern Mexico
Buchy, M. C., Frey, E., Salisbury, S. W., Stinnesbeck, W., Lopez-Oliva, J. G. and Gotte, M. (2006) An unusual pliosaur (Reptilia, Sauropterygia) from the Kimmeridgian (Upper Jurassic) of northeastern Mexico. Neues Jahrbuch fuer Geologie und Palaeontologie. Abhandlungen, 240 2: 241-270.
OP'ed by Megafelis Fatalis
by banchero
Megafelis Fatalis
Kronosaurus queenslandicus
Kronosaurus was one of the sea reptiles known as pliosaurs — a member of the plesiosaur group, but in the Pliosauridae family, with the distinctive feature of a much shorter, thicker neck. It was one of the largest pliosaurs.
Anatomy
Pliosaurs were more heavily built, more streamlined, and faster than other plesiosaurs, and were suited to catch fewer, larger meals with their massive jaws and rows of sharp teeth up to 25 cm (10 inches) long.
This picture shows a preparator (Arnie Lewis) working on the 9 foot long (3 meter) skull of Kronosaurus queenslandicus at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology.
The huge head, which was mostly mouth, also had large eyes and an offset pair of nostrils that gave it directional "water-sniffing" ability, as in other plesiosaurs. A pliosaur swam with all of its four limbs, which had evolved into long, wide, strong flippers, one at each corner of the elongated body. The tail was short and tapering, as in other plesiosaurs, and was perhaps used only for steering.
This photo shows the restored skeleton of Kronosaurus queenslandicus on exhibit at Harvard in 1959. The specimen was said to be about 42 feet in length, although there is some question regarding the addition of a number of dorsal vertebrae.
Size and Ecology
Kronosaurus lived in the Early Cretaceous Period. Most of its fossils are known from Australia, where they were first discovered in 1889 in Queensland, which was covered by shallow sea some 120 million years ago, though the most complete fossil to date was found in Villa de Leyva (Colombia) in 1977. The name was given in 1924 by Heber Longman. For many years, estimates put the total length of Kronosaurus at up to 13 meters (43 feet), but recent studies of its fossil skull and other parts, and comparisons with other pliosaurs, suggest that the true length was probably only 9–10 meters (30–33 feet). Other creatures preserved from the time include numerous fish and various molluscs such as squid, ammonites and belemnites. Some of their fossil shells bear tooth marks that could have been made by Kronosaurus, whose rear teeth were rounded and suited to crushing hard-cased victims.
The holotype specimen of the species K. queenslandicus was described by Longman in 1924, and is currently in the Queensland Museum. Hampe described a second species, K. boyacensis, in 1992 but the dubious state of the holotype specimen makes the assignment to the Kronosaurus genus uncertain.
by Wolf Eagle
Teeth
The teeth of Kronosaurus are large in length (exceeding 7 cm - the largest up to 30 cm long with 12 cm crowns). However, they lack carinae (cutting edges) and the distinct trihedral (three facets) of Pliosaurus and Liopleurodon teeth. The combination of large size, conical shape and lack of cutting edges allows for easy identification of Kronosaurus teeth in Cretaceous deposits from Australia.
Diet
Large, round bite-marks have been found on the skull of an Albian-age Australian elasmosaurid (Eromangasaurus) that could be from a Kronosaurus attack.
by Pliosaur
for the diet we can add to this that krnosaurus eat shark:
"One Kronosaurus specimen had shark vertebrae preserved at the back of the skull, possibly indicating that it choked while eating a shark."
Cretaceous Marine Reptiles
monster of Aramberri,cousin of kronosaurus?
We here describe the rostrum of a pliosaur from the Kimmeridgian of northeastern Mexico. The specimen comes from the Upper Jurassic La Casita Formation (Kimmeridgian - Tithonian) and represents one of the few Plesiosauria in the area. The internal anatomy of the specimen is partly visible through cross-sections, which reveal a hitherto undescribed rostral prolongation of a paired bone of the interorbital area, probably the parietal or frontal beneath the premaxillae. The specimen also provides new information on the morphology and function of the choanae. In light of these morphological data, the new pliosaur shows similarities both with the European Late Jurassic genus Pliosaurus and the Australian Early Cretaceous Kronosaurus.
An unusual pliosaur (Reptilia, Sauropterygia) from the Kimmeridgian (Upper Jurassic) of northeastern Mexico
Buchy, M. C., Frey, E., Salisbury, S. W., Stinnesbeck, W., Lopez-Oliva, J. G. and Gotte, M. (2006) An unusual pliosaur (Reptilia, Sauropterygia) from the Kimmeridgian (Upper Jurassic) of northeastern Mexico. Neues Jahrbuch fuer Geologie und Palaeontologie. Abhandlungen, 240 2: 241-270.
OP'ed by Megafelis Fatalis
by banchero
Megafelis Fatalis
