Trinacromerum
| Trinacromerum Temporal range: Late Cretaceous
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| Mounted T. kirki cast at the Royal Ontario Museum | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | †Sauropterygia |
| Order: | †Plesiosauria |
| Family: | †Polycotylidae |
| Genus: | †Trinacromerum Cragin, 1888 |
| Species | |
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Trinacromerum is an extinct genus of sauropterygian reptile, a member of the polycotylid plesiosaurs. It contains two species, T. bentonianum and T. kirki. Specimens have been discovered in the Late Cretaceous fossil deposits of what is now modern Kansas and Manitoba.[1] Some fossils are also found in the Southern United States such as in the Mooreville Chalk of Alabama.[2]
Description
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Trinacromerum was 3 meters (9.8 feet) long. Its teeth show that it fed on small fish.[1]
The long flippers of Trinacromerum enabled it to achieve high swimming speeds.[1] Its physical appearance was described by Richard Ellis as akin to a "four-flippered penguin."[3] Its name means "three tipped femur".
Classification
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Below is a cladogram of polycotylid relationships from Ketchum & Benson, 2011.[4]
See also
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References
[edit]- ^ a b c Ellis, Richard (2003). Sea Dragons: Predators of the Prehistoric Oceans. University Press of Kansas. p. 189. ISBN 0-7006-1269-6.
- ^ Kiernan, Caitlin R. (2002-03-14). "Stratigraphic distribution and habitat segregation of mosasaurs in the Upper Cretaceous of western and central Alabama, with an historical review of alabama mosasaur discoveries". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 22 (1): 91–103. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2002)022[0091:SDAHSO]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0272-4634.
- ^ Ellis, 190
- ^ Hilary F. Ketchum; Roger B. J. Benson (2011). "A new pliosaurid (Sauropterygia, Plesiosauria) from the Oxford Clay Formation (Middle Jurassic, Callovian) of England: evidence for a gracile, longirostrine grade of Early-Middle Jurassic pliosaurids". Special Papers in Palaeontology. 86: 109–129.
External links
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