Discosaurus
{{Short description|Extinct genus of reptiles}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| fossil_range = Late Cretaceous, {{fossilrange|Santonian}}
| image = Discosaurus.jpg
| image_caption = Holotype vertebrae of D. vestutus
| taxon = Discosaurus
| authority = Leidy, 1851
| type_species = {{extinct}}Discosaurus vetustus
| type_species_authority = Leidy, 1851
}}
Discosaurus is an extinct genus of plesiosaur from the Santonian of Alabama and Mississippi.Bibliography and Catalogue of the Fossil Vertebrata of North America, Issue 179 by Oliver Perry Hay One species is known, which is D. vestutus.
Discovery and naming
The holotype, eleven vertebrae, was discovered by Joseph Jones in Alabama and Mississippi, and was named and described as Discosaurus vestutus by Leidy (1851).Leidy, J. (1851). Descriptions of a number of fossil reptiles and mammals. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 5:325-328. Two more specimens from New Jersey were described and were later re-classified as belonging to Cimoliasaurus magnus by Leidy (1870b).Leidy, J., (1870). Discosaurus and its allies. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil. 22:18-22.
Leidy (1870b) later argued that Discosaurus was the same animal as Elasmosaurus.
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q5281707}}
Category:Cretaceous plesiosaurs of North America
Category:Cretaceous plesiosaurs
Category:Cretaceous reptiles of North America
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