Marine reptiles
Plesiosaur skeleton
Dolichorhynchops (Polycotylidae)
Four flippers and an elongated skull in a single skeleton: a marine reptile of the Cretaceous sea, frozen mid-stroke.
Price on request · In stock
- Epoch
- Cretaceous period
- Size
- 250–300 cm
- Classification
- Plesiosaur, family Polycotylidae
- Habitat
- Open sea of the Cretaceous period
- Ref.
- R–0661
Before us is the skeleton of a plesiosaur, a marine reptile, mounted as though the animal were swimming through open water. The long, narrow skull with its row of small teeth gives way to a spine with ribs, while four long flippers spread out to either side. The bones of the "fingers" are preserved within the flippers. The animal measures between two and a half and three metres in length.
Dolichorhynchops was a marine reptile, not a dinosaur: a short-necked plesiosaur of the Cretaceous period belonging to the family Polycotylidae. Its elongated snout was adapted for catching fish and cephalopods. Its four flippers worked as underwater wings: the animal did not row but flew through the water. It breathed air and rose regularly to the surface.
The skeleton's value lies in its completeness: the skull and all four flippers belong to a single animal. It reveals how this swimmer was built, from the narrow snout to the last bones of the "fingers". In space it reads as motion, arrested mid-stroke.
In life
Dolichorhynchops hunted in open water, beating its flippers like wings, and rose to the surface for a breath of air.