Anguanax

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.



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