Thalattosauroid Skulls & Feeding Behavior: the Weird and the Weirder

Preface Thalattosaurs were an order of indeterminate diapsid reptiles known exclusively from the Triassic. These sea dwelling reptiles were divided into two superfamilies, Thalattosauroidea and Askeptosauroidea. The slender bodied, lizard-esque Askeptosauroids were long snouted coastal animals and the deeper bodied Thalattosauroids were better adapted to life in the water, even entirely lacking the potential limited …

Reconstructing Marine Reptiles: a Guide to Soft Tissue

Disclaimer: Before I begin, I’d like to clarify certain things about this blog post. This post is not meant to chastise or call-out any specific artists or artworks, nor is meant to complain or to rant. The purpose of this post is to compile a sort of guide for paleoartists when they are reconstructing the …

Polar Oddities and Bathyal Ghouls: The Unspoken Diversity of the Cryptoclidids

The Cryptoclididae were a very widespread family of plesiosaurs, both temporally and geographically, stretching from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous and achieving a near global distribution. The most famous cryptoclidids were those found in the Oxford Clay of England, including Cryptoclidus itself. While many Cryptoclidids have received fairly extensive study, their actual ecology …