During the course of amniote evolution, numerous taxa secondarily adapted to an aquatic
life. It appears that many of these taxa primitively display “pachyostosis,” an osseous …

The emergence of gigantic pliosaurid plesiosaurs reshaped the trophic structure of
Mesozoic marine ecosystems, and established an~ 80 million-year (Ma) dynasty of …

Numerous amniote groups adapted to an aquatic life. This change of habitat naturally led to
numerous convergences. The various adaptive traits vary depending on the degree of …

Environmental changes governed the diversity of marine ecosystems and the evolution of
marine reptiles during the Jurassic. Abrupt climatic changes, mainly cooling, produced …

Pliosaurids were a long-lived and cosmopolitan group of marine predators that spanned 110
million years and occupied the upper tiers of marine ecosystems from the Middle Jurassic …

The primary function of pachyostosis, pachyosteo‐sclerosis, and osteosclerosis may be to
act as ballast, not so much (as previously suggested) to neutralise the buoyancy of existing …

Pliosaurid marine reptiles played important roles in marine food chains from the Middle
Jurassic to the middle Cretaceous, frequently as apex predators. The evolution of …

Kronosaurus boyacensis is the most famous and most important Lower Cretaceous marine
reptile fossil recovered from the Villa de Leyva region of Boyacá, Colombia, northern South …

Peloneustes philarchus is the most abundant pliosaurid from the Peterborough Member of
the Oxford Clay Formation (Callovian) of the UK. It is a valid taxon possessing a unique …

New elasmosaurid plesiosaur specimens are described from the Early Maastrichtian of
Angola. Phylogenetic analyses reconstruct the Angolan taxon as an aristonectine …