Pliosaurusn.
/ˌplʌɪə(ʊ)ˈsɔːrəs/, U.S. /ˌplaɪəˈsɔrəs/ Palaeontology.
A genus of pliosaurs, the type of the family Pliosauridae; (also pliosaurus) a pliosaur of this genus.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > reptiles > extinct reptiles and dinosaurs > [noun] > order Sauropterygia > pliosaurus
pliosaur1842
Pliosaurus1842
1842 R. Owen in Rep. 11th Meeting Brit. Assoc. Advancem. Sci. 1841 60 The Reptile in question is essentially a modified Plesiosaurus, but its modifications appear to entitle it to be regarded as a distinct genus, which..I have proposed to call Pliosaurus.
1851 G. F. Richardson Introd. Geol. (1855) 300 The Pliosaurus was a gigantic reptile, intermediate between the two preceding genera. We know two species from the Oxford and Kimmeridge clays.
1884 A. Sedgwick & F. G. Heathcote tr. C. Claus Elem. Text-bk. Zool.: Protozoa to Insecta 177 The Halosaurians, with their best known genera Ichthyosaurus and Pleiosaurus, are entirely peculiar to the secondary period.
1911 Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 144/2 A few genera, such as Pliosaurus from the Jurassic.., are distinguished by their relatively large head and stout neck.
1966 A. S. Romer Vertebr. Paleontol. (ed. 3) ix. 125/1 Pliosaurus and Trinacromerum..represent a series which had a relatively short neck but tended to increase the length of the head in compensatory fashion.
1993 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) B. 341 399 Pliosaurus, at about 10 m overall length, may have been large enough to swallow most potential prey without being particularly specialized to dismember it.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1842