Brachauchenius was a 15 foot long pliosaur which lived in the shallow sea that once covered the middle of North America during the middle Cretaceous Period 100-90 million years ago.
Fossils of this animal were first found by Charles H. Sternberg in 1884 near the village of Delphos, Ottawa County, Kansas within the rock layers of the Benton Shale. In 1903, the paleontologists Samuel W. Williston and Oliver C. Farrington officially named it Brachauchenius lucasi, “Lucas’ short neck”, in honor of Frederic A. Lucas of the Smithsonian Institution who assisted Williston in examining and describing the specimen. Although a complete specimen has never been found, comparisons of its anatomy to those of other well-known pliosaurs such as Pliosaurus itself and Liopleurodon indicate that Brachauchenius likely measured around 15 feet long.
Studies of its anatomy in 2011 have shown that Brachauchenius was a close relative of the giant pliosaur Kronosaurus, which lived in the waters around Australia during the middle Cretaceous circa 105-100 MYA. Kronosaurus was long-believed to have been the largest marine reptile ever, but discoveries of gigantic ichthyosaurs from the Triassic Period such as Shonisaurus, Shastasaurus, and Ichthyotitan have challenged this title.
Brachauchenius was one of the last pliosaurs to exist before the group went extinct around 90 MYA. In fact, Brachauchenius might very well be THE last pliosaur. Nobody is sure why the pliosaurs died out after living on Earth for so long. However, their disappearance allowed a new group of marine reptiles – the mosasaurs – to rapidly evolve and fill the empty vacuum that the pliosaurs left behind. In that regard, they succeeded fantastically.
Brachauchenius lucasi. © Jason R. Abdale (April 24, 2024).
If you enjoy these drawings and articles, please click the “like” button, and leave a comment to let me know what you think. Subscribe to this blog if you wish to be immediately informed whenever a new post is published. Kindly check out my pages on Redbubble and Fine Art America if you want to purchase merch of my artwork.
Bibliography
Williston, Samuel W.; Farrington, Oliver C. (1903). “North American Pliosaurs, Part 1”. Field Columbian Museum – Geological Series, volume 2, issue 1, publication 73 (April 1903). Pages 1-79.
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/21579#page/7/mode/1up.
Ketchum, Hilary F.; Benson, Roger B. J. (2011). “A new pliosaurid (Sauropterygia, Plesiosauria) from the Oxford Clay Formation (Middle Jurassic, Callovian) of England: Evidence for a gracile, longirostrine grade of Early-Middle Jurassic pliosaurids”. The Palaeontological Association – Special Papers in Palaeontology, volume 86 (November 2011). Pages 109-129.
Categories: Paleontology, Uncategorized
DINOSAURS AND BARBARIANS 
Leave a comment