Name:
Brancasaurus.
Phonetic: Bran-cah-sor-us.
Named By: T. Wegner - 1914.
Synonyms: Gronausaurus
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Sauropterygia, Plesiosauria.
Species: B. brancai (type).
Diet: Piscivore.
Size: Holotype individual about 3.25 meters
long, but this individual was not fully grown.
Known locations: Germany - Bückeberg Formation.
Time period: Mid Berriasian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Skull and almost complete
specimen.
Brancasaurus is a genus of small plesiosaur that lived in the waters of Europe during the early Cretaceous. Because the holotype individual of Brancasaurus was fairly small, most of the skeleton has been recovered, and Brancasaurus is known as one of the most complete individual plesiosaurs ever recovered.
Further reading
- Brancasaurus brancai n. g. n. sp., ein
elasmosauride aus
dem Wealden Westfalens. - Branca-Festschrift 235-305. - T.
Wegner - 1914.
- Reappraisal of Europe's most complete Early Cretaceous plesiosaurian:
Brancasaurus brancai Wegner, 1914 from the "Wealden facies" of Germany.
- PeerJ. 4: e2813. - S. Sachs, J. J. Hornung & B. P. Kear -
2016.