| Description | Elasmosaurus is a genus of plesiosaur that lived in North America during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, about 80.5 million years ago. The first specimen was discovered in 1867 near Fort Wallace, Kansas, and was sent to the American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope, who named it E. platyurus in 1868. The generic name means "thin-plate reptile", and the specific name means "flat-tailed". Cope originally reconstructed the skeleton of Elasmosaurus with the skull at the end of the tail, an error which was made light of by the paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh, and became part of their "Bone Wars" rivalry. Only one incomplete Elasmosaurus skeleton is definitely known, consisting of a fragmentary skull, the spine, and the pectoral and pelvic girdles, and a single species is recognized today; other species are now considered invalid or have been moved to other genera.
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| Source Data | |
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| Rank | genus |
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| Taxonomy (GBIF) | Life : Animalia : Chordata : Reptilia : Elasmosauridae : Elasmosaurus |
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| Taxonomy (PBDB) | Life : Animalia : Chordata : Reptilia : Sauropterygia : Elasmosauridae : Elasmosaurus |
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| Taxonomic Status (GBIF) | accepted |
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Classification
(PBDB,GBIF) | |
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| Scientific Name | Elasmosaurus Cope, 1868 |
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| Name Published In | Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad., 1868 |
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| Opinions (PBDB) | | Name | Rank | Opinion | Evidence | Author |
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| Elasmosaurus | genus | belongs to Sauropterygia | stated with evidence | Cope, 1869 | | Elasmosaurus | genus | belongs to Streptosauria | stated with evidence | Cope, 1869 | | Elasmosaurus | genus | belongs to Elasmosauridae | stated with evidence | Cope, 1871 | | Elasmosaurus | genus | subjective synonym of Cimoliosaurus | stated without evidence | Lydekker, 1889 | | Elasmosaurus | genus | belongs to Elasmosauridae | stated with evidence | Seeley, 1892 | | Elasmosaurus | genus | belongs to Elasmosauridae | stated without evidence | Hay, 1902 | | Elasmosaurus | genus | belongs to Plesiosauria | stated without evidence | Williston, 1903 | | Elasmosaurus | genus | belongs to Plesiosauria | stated with evidence | Williston, 1906 | | Elasmosaurus | genus | belongs to Elasmosauridae | stated with evidence | Wegner, 1914 | | Elasmosaurus | genus | belongs to Elasmosauridae | stated without evidence | White, 1940 | | Elasmosaurus | genus | belongs to Elasmosauridae | stated with evidence | Welles, 1943 | | Elasmosaurus | genus | belongs to Elasmosaurinae | stated with evidence | Welles, 1962 | | Elasmosaurus | genus | belongs to Elasmosauridae | stated with evidence | Brown, 1981 | | Elasmosaurus | genus | belongs to Elasmosauridae | implied | Carroll, 1988 | | Elasmosaurus | genus | belongs to Elasmosauridae | stated with evidence | Carpenter, 1999 | | Elasmosaurus | genus | belongs to Plesiosauria | second hand | Sepkoski, 2002 | | Elasmosaurus | genus | belongs to Elasmosauridae | stated with evidence | Sachs, 2005 | | Elasmosaurus | genus | belongs to Styxosaurinae | stated with evidence | Otero, 2016 |
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| Status (PBDB) | extinct |
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| Taxon Size (PBDB) | 3 |
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| First Recorded Appearance | 93.9 - 89.8 Ma
Late/Upper Cretaceous |
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| Last Recorded Appearance | 83.5 - 70.6 Ma
Late/Upper Cretaceous |
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| Environment | marine (based on Plesiosauria) |
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| Motility | actively mobile (based on Plesiosauria) |
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| Diet | carnivore (based on Plesiosauria) |
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| Reproduction | viviparous (based on Plesiosauria) |
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| Taphonomy | hydroxylapatite (based on Plesiosauria) |
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| Primary Reference (PBDB) | E. D. Cope. 1868. On a new large enaliosaur. The American Journal of Science, series 2 46(137):263-264 |
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| Wikipedia | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elasmosaurus |
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| Cope E. D. On a new large enaliosaur, The American Journal of Science, series 2 46 137, 263-264 |
| Cope E. D. , Synopsis of the Extinct Batrachia, Reptilia and Aves of North America. Part I. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series 14, 1-104 |
| Cope E. D. On the homologies of some of the cranial bones of the Reptilia, and on the systematic arrangement of the class, Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 19, 194-247 |
| Cope E. D. Check-list of North American Batrachia and Reptilia; with a systematic list of the higher groups, and an essay on geographical distribution. Based on the specimens contained in the U. S. National Museum, Bulletin of the United States National Museum 1, 1-109 |
| Seeley H. G. The Nature of the Shoulder Girdle and Clavicular Arch in Sauropterygia, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 51, 119-151 |
| Hay O. P. (1902) , Bibliography and Catalogue of the Fossil Vertebrata of North America. Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey 179, 1-868 |
| Williston S. W. (1903) North American plesiosaurs, part 1, Geological Series Field Museum of Natural History 3 1, 1-77 |
| Williston S. W. (1906) North American plesiosaurs: Elasmosaurus, Cimoliasaurus, and Polycotylus, The American Journal of Science, series 4 21, 221-236 |
| Wegner T. (1914) Brancasaurus brancai n. g. n. sp., ein elasmosauride aus dem Wealden Westfalens, Branca-Festschrift, 235-305 |
| White T. E. (1940) Holotype of Plesiosaurus longirostris Blake and classification of the plesiosaurs, Journal of Paleontology 14 5, 451-467 |
| Welles S. P. (1943) Elasmosaurid plesiosaurs with description of new material from California and Colorado, Memoirs of the University of California 13, 125-254 |
| Welles S. P. (1949) A new elasmosaur from the Eagle Ford Shale of Texas, Fondren Science Series 1, 1-28 |
| Welles S. P. (1962) A new species of elasmosaur from the Aptian of Colombia and a review of the Cretaceous plesiosaurs, University of California Publications in Geological Sciences 44 1, 1-96 |
| Brown D. S. (1981) The English Upper Jurassic Plesiosauroidea (Reptilia) and a review of the phylogeny and classification of the Plesiosauria, Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) 35 4, 253-347 |
| Carroll R. L. (1988) , Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution, 1-698 |
| Carpenter K. (1999) Revision of North American elasmosaurs from the Cretaceous of the Western Interior, Paludicola 2 2, 148-173 |
| Storrs G. W. (1999) An examination of Plesiosauria (Diapsida: Sauropterygia) from the Niobrara Chalk (Upper Cretaceous) of Central North America, Paleontological Contributions of the University of Kansas 11, 1-15 |
| Sepkoski, Jr. J. J. (2002) A compendium of fossil marine animal genera, Bulletins of American Paleontology 363, 1-560 |
| Sachs S. (2005) Redescription of Elasmosaurus platyurus Cope 1868 (Plesiosauria: Elasmosauridae) from the Upper Cretaceous (Lower Campanian) of Kansas, U.S.A., Paludicola 5 3, 92-106 |
| Ketchum H. F., Benson R. B. J. (2010) Global interrelationships of Plesiosauria (Reptilia, Sauropterygia) and the pivotal role of taxon sampling in determining the outcome of phylogenetic analyses, Biological Reviews 85, 361-392 doi:10.1111/j.1469-185X.2009.00107.x |
| Otero R. A. (2016) Taxonomic reassessment of Hydralmosaurus as Styxosaurus: new insights on the elasmosaurid neck evolution throughout the Cretaceous, PeerJ 4, e1777:1-60 doi:10.7717/peerj.1777 |
| Nomenclator Zoologicus. A list of the names of genera and subgenera in zoology from the tenth edition of Linnaeus, 1758 to the end of 2004. Digitised by uBio from vols. 1-9 of Neave (ed.), 1939-1996 plus supplementary digital-only volume. http://ubio.org/NomenclatorZoologicus (as at 2006). - via The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera |
| Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad., 1868 - via The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera |
| SN2000: Brands, S. J. (compiler) 1989-2005. Systema Naturae 2000. Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2006 version). Available online at http://sn2000.taxonomy.nl/. - via The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera |
| Sepkoski, J. J., Jr. (2002). A compendium of fossil marine animal genera. Bulletins of American Paleontology. 363, 1-560. - via The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera |
Elasmosaurus ✝
