Sauropterygians are among the most diverse group of marine reptiles known, with a huge variety of ecologies and morphologies developing over the time they were around, whether they be the armoured shellfish-eating placodonts, or the beefy plesiosaurs, they spanned an astounding 180 million years, from the upper lower Triassic right through to the end of the Cretaceous. Early in their radiation, and the time where the most clades existed were the Nothosaurs, marine reptiles that in many ways appear similar in appearance to living seals which likely filled in a similar niche, though more on a surface level, and are a very interesting group. I hope you enjoy. Background music: Lost Frontier - Kevin MacLeod Umm 7ths Deep Space - Audionautix Make sure to like and subscribe to learn more about our wonderful world! Sources: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2633 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothosaur https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/0611/Ancient-sea-reptiles-scooped-up-prey-say-scientists https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rstb.1985.0091 https://sci-hub.se/https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10347-013-0360-6 https://www.ajsonline.org/content/293/A/63 https://obscuredinosaurfacts.com/blog/post/2019/11/13/aquatic-reptiles.html https://www.jstor.org/stable/2396217 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0158448 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263015691_Nothosaur_foraging_tracks_from_the_Middle_Triassic_of_southwestern_China https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12542-021-00563-w https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140611093619.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paludidraco http://palaeos.com/vertebrates/sauropterygia/nothosauridae.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachypleurosaur https://peerj.com/articles/13818.pdf https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.25.489368v1 https://www.nature.com/articles/nature03050 https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article/135/1/33/2624174?login=false https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothosauridae https://www.nature.com/articles/srep07142 https://wtf-triassic.tumblr.com/post/611233959779745792/nothosaurus https://www.sci.news/paleontology/brevicaudosaurus-jiyangshanensis-09001.html https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms4973 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothosaurus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauropterygia http://novataxa.blogspot.com/2014/06/dikoposichnus.html https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ancient-sea-monster-reptile-shallow-fossil-nothosaur https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12542-021-00563-w#Sec4 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0188509 https://peerj.com/articles/13818/ https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-020-0778-7 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/pala.12425 Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. All video/game content is recorded and edited under fair use rights for reasons of commentary and social satire.

• published: 18 Jan 2023
• views: 10368