plesiosaurn.
/ˈpliːzɪəsɔː/, U.S. /ˈplisiəˌsɔr/ Palaeontology.
Any of various extinct marine reptiles of the genus Plesiosaurus, the family Plesiosauridae, or the infraorder Plesiosauria, having a broad, flattened body, a usually small head (often on a long, flexible neck), a short tail, and four large, paddle-like limbs, known from fossil remains of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Cf. elasmosaur (elasmosaurus n.), pliosaur n.
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the world > animals > reptiles > extinct reptiles and dinosaurs > [noun] > order Sauropterygia > plesiosaurus
Plesiosaurus1821
plesiosaur1839
sauropterygian1861
plesiosaurian1869
plesiosauroid1870
1839 Civil Engineer & Architect's Jrnl. 2 148/2 The ichthyosaur, or fish-lizard, and its ally the plesiosaur.
1860 R. Owen Palæontol. 223 Cuvier deemed the structure of the Plesiosaur..to have been the most singular, and its characters the most anomalous that had been discovered amid the ruins of a former world.
1888 Proc. Royal Soc. 44 135 In many Teleosaurs and Plesiosaurs the incisor teeth are relatively large.
1933 A. S. Romer Man & Vertebrates iv. 110 Plesiosaurs reached a maximum length of about forty feet.
1959 A. C. Hardy Open Sea II. xiv. 258 The plesiosaurs were much less fish-like and probably used their paddles for rowing themselves along as turtles do.
1994 Guardian 2 July 5/1 The pliosaur is one of the dinosaur family known as plesiosaurs, with its limb bones formed into paddles and teeth up to seven inches long.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1839