Ichthyosauria
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Ichthyosauria is an order of large extinct marine reptiles sometimes referred to as "ichthyosaurs", although the term is also used for wider clades in which the order resides.
Ichthyosaurus communis in London
An ichthyosaur and plesiosaur by Édouard Riou, 1863. This old representation of a plesiosaur lifting its head is not accurate and physically impossible.
The skull of specimen NHMUK PV R1158 found by Joseph Anning in 1811
The torso of specimen NHMUK PV R1158 found by Mary Anning in 1812
Plesiosaur
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The Plesiosauria or plesiosaurs are an order or clade of extinct Mesozoic marine reptiles, belonging to the Sauropterygia. Plesiosaurs first appeared in the latest Triassic Period, possibly in the Rha
Ichthyosauria
…abundant in the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic periods, until they were replaced as the top aquatic predators by another marine reptilian group, the Plesiosauria, in the later Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, though previous views of ichthyosaur decline during this period are probably overstated. Ichthyosaurians…
Paleo Hall at HMNS plesiosaur
Peloneustes philarchus Tubingen
First published plesiosaur skeleton, 1719 (specimen NHMUK PV R.1330)
As this illustration shows, Conybeare by 1824 had gained a basically correct understanding of plesiosaur anatomy.