Name: Anguanax
(Anguana lord).
Phonetic: An-gwa-naks.
Named By: Andrea Cau & Federico Fanti -
2015.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Sauropterygia, Plesiosauria, Pliosauridae.
Species: A. zignoi (type).
Diet: Carnivore/Piscivore.
Size: Roughly estimated to have been about 3-4
meters in length.
Known locations: Italy - Rosso Ammonitico
Veronese Formation.
Time period: Oxfordian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Partial skull and partial
post cranial skeletal remains.
Descriptions
of the fossils of Anguanax first came to press in
2014, though the
genus was not officially named until 2015 when further fossil
remains could be described for it. With the first fossils coming from
Northern Italy, Anguanax is recognised as being
the he first pliosaur
genus to be known from articulated remains from Italy.
While
most people are familiar with the truly huge monstrous pliosaurs such
as Pliosaurus,
Anguanax seems to have been much
smaller and a
predator specialising in smaller animals. The reconstructed length of
Anguanax falls somewhere between three and four
meters in length, big
enough to cause some trouble, but not an apex predator of the
Jurassic seas. Though the skull is incomplete, the jaws of
Anguanax were proportionately longer and more
lightly built, with
only small pointed teeth that would have been of little use against
similarly sized marine reptiles. Instead Anguanax
was more likely a
predator of fish which chose to try and stay out of the way of its
larger pliosaur relatives.
Further reading
- A pliosaurid plesiosaurian from the Rosso Ammonitico Veronese
Formation of Italy. - Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 59 (3):
643–650. - Andrea Cau & Federico Fanti - 2014.
- High evolutionary rates and the origin of the Rosso Ammonitico
Veronese Formation (Middle-Upper Jurassic of Italy) reptiles. -
Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology. -
Andrea Cau & Federico Fanti - 2015.