Plesiosaur

Cryptoclididae

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Elasmosauridae

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Plesiosauridae

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Pliosauridae

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Plesiosaurs (PLEE-see-oh-SORES) were large, carnivorous aquatic reptiles. They are somewhat fancifully said to look like "a turtle with a snake threaded through its body", though they lacked a shell.

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They first appeared in the late Triassic period and thrived until the K-T extinction at the end of the Cretaceous. Despite being large Mesozoic reptiles, they were not a type of dinosaur.

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It is occasionally claimed that plesiosaurs are not extinct, although there is no scientific evidence for this belief; the modern sightings that are occasionally reported are usually explained as basking shark carcasses or hoaxes.

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Carnivorous: REDIRECT carnivore...

Triassic: The Triassic is a geologic period that extends from about 245 to 202 million years ago (mya). As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic. Both start and end of the Triassic are marked by major extinction events. The extinction event tha...

K-T extinction: REDIRECT Cretaceous?Tertiary extinction event...