Palaeontolog of SW Germany 3.1.12: Hauff, Hauff, Hauff and no end in sight!

Ichthyosaurs was yesterday (well, last week), today it’s time for other large marine vertebrates of the Lias ε. Let’s start with Hauffiosaurus zanoni, a pliosaur.

next up, Hydrorion brachypterygius. Much like Hauffiosaurus, it is pretty much a one-of… in fact, even more so. There simply aren’t that many places where good, complete large vertebrates come out of marine layers of this age. No wonder Holzmaden gets the vast majority of them.

cool hu?

So what’s the diff between a (plesiosaur) plesiosaur and a pliosaur (pleisosaur)? It is best shown by this life reconstructions: plesios had loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong necks and small skulls, whereas plios had looooooooooooong necks and bigger skulls. Reminds me a lot of the main difference between saurischian and ornithischian herbivores…..NO! I won’t post any Plateosaurus pics this time around, I will resist the urge

And then, you round a corner and there is this wall:

OK, the architecture is not the most amazing, I’ll readily admit that, but that allows a clear focus on the fossils…. the fossils…THE FOSSILS!!! closer views of the two nicer ones:

and to top off this post, which is far from done: a whopper of a croc! Well, a whopper of a photo of a very nice teleosaur, Platysuchus multiscrobiculatus. Original panorama image is 162 MB as a PNG, 13,3 MB as a JPG, so think twice before asking for it!