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Leptocleidus

Extinct genus of reptiles From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Leptocleidus
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Leptocleidus is an extinct genus of plesiosaur,[1] belonging to the family Leptocleididae.[2] It was a small plesiosaur, measuring only up to 3 m (9.8 ft) in length.[3]

Quick Facts Scientific classification, Species ...
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Discovery

L. superstes Andrews, 1922
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Cranium (lateral view, top left; ventral (palatal) view, top right) and vertebrae. Length of vertebral series approx. 45 cm
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Pectoral girdle in dorsal view (left), anterior view (top right), lateral view (bottom right), right humerus (center), and ribs (left). Length of pectoral girdle approx. 40 cm

In short, the term Leptocleidus means "slender clavicle". It comes from a merge of the Greek words λεπτοσ, meaning "slender" and κλειδ (also spelled κλεισ) meaning clavicle.

Leptocleidus is known from the following sediments:

A specimen from the Vectis Formation (lower Aptian age), Isle of Wight, found in 1995 and seen as a "Leptocleidus sp.", was named as a separate genus Vectocleidus in 2012.

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Description

With large clavicles and interclavicle and small scapulae, Leptocleidus resembled the Early Jurassic Rhomaleosaurus and members of the Cretaceous family, Polycotylidae. The animal had 21 teeth on either side of its maxilla and approximately 35 teeth on each side of the mandible. The Leptocleidus' triangle-shaped skull had a crest running from a ridge on the end of the nose to the nasal region. Differing from pliosaurids, Leptocleidus had single-headed cervical ribs and a deep depression in the centra of the neck vertebrae.[3]

Leptocleidus, unlike many plesiosaurs, lived in shallow lagoons and likely visited brackish and fresh water systems (such as the mouths of large rivers). This led Arthur Richard Ivor Cruickshank to infer that this movement to fresh water was an attempt to flee larger plesiosaurs and pliosaurs. Most species are known from The British Isles but L. capensis was discovered in Cape Province, South Africa.[3]

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Classification

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Size of two species, along with Vectocleidus (green at the center), compared to a human

Cladogram based on Ketchum and Benson (2011):[4]

Leptocleididae

Nichollssaura

Brancasaurus

Umoonasaurus

Leptocleidus

L. capensis

L. superstes

See also

References

Further reading

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