Martinectes
Sea reptiles that swam with four large flippers, many with very long necks. Pliosaurs are a branch of the group with short necks and big heads, the top predators of their seas.
Who it is related to: Part of the Sauropterygia, a branch of reptiles separate from the dinosaurs.
This page has only the scientific data from the databases; there is no hand-written description yet.
Dinosaurs from the same rocks
Martinectes was found in the Pierre Shale, which also holds these dinosaurs: the same region and broad span of time.
Formation data from the Paleobiology Database, counting only each genus's main formations. One formation can span hundreds of thousands to millions of years, so this doesn't mean any two of them ever met.
Scientific details
- Group
- Plesiosaurs
- Family
- Polycotylidae
- When it lived
- 72.2–83.6 million years ago
- Geologic stages
- Campanian
- Named by
- Clark et al., 2024
- Fossil occurrences
- 3 sites
Countries with fossils
- United States
Data from Paleobiology Database and Wikidata