Cryptoclidus was a 15 foot long plesiosaur which inhabited the prehistoric Tethys Sea, which once covered much of Europe, during the middle of the Jurassic Period 165-160 million years ago. Fossils of Cryptoclidus have been found within southern England and northern France.
Cryptoclidus was the namesake member of the plesiosaur family Cryptoclididae. The group appeared during the middle Jurassic approximately 170 MYA and continued into the early Cretaceous Period about 130 MYA. At that point, they seem to have been phased out by another plesiosaur group called the leptocleidids, who were possibly the direct ancestors of the famous long-necked elasmosaurids which would dominate the late Cretaceous seas.
The cryptoclidids were medium-sized plesiosaurs commonly reaching between 10-20 feet long, with moderate-length necks and unusually large flippers in proportion with overall body size. Notable cryptoclidid genera include Cryptoclidus itself, Colymbosaurus, Kimmerosaurus (which might be the same animal as Colymbosaurus, but the jury’s still out on that one), Muraenosaurus, and Pantosaurus.
Cryptoclidus shared its mid-Jurassic marine habitat with many other species of aquatic reptiles including the plesiosaurs Muraenosaurus and Picrocleidus, the pliosaurs Liopleurodon, Peloneustes, and Simolestes, the ichthyosaur Ophthalmosaurus, and the marine crocodylomorphs Suchodus, Gracilineustes, Thalattosuchus, and Tyrannoneustes.
Below is a reconstruction which I made of Cryptoclidus. The coloration is based upon that seen in the 1999 BBC series Walking With Dinosaurs, the original color design for the 1993 Jurassic Park plesiosaur die-cast figurine, and the Carolina Pygmy Rattlesnake (Sistrurus miliarius miliarius), all of which have similar color schemes.
Cryptoclidus. © Jason R. Abdale (December 27, 2023).
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Categories: Paleontology, Uncategorized
DINOSAURS AND BARBARIANS 
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