Is Nothosaurus a dinosaur?
Is Nothosaurus a dinosaur?
In the middle of the Triassic Period, when the first dinosaurs were beginning to walk on land, the seas were home to a family of reptiles known as nothosaurs.
What did the Nothosaurus look like?
Nothosaurus was characterized by a slender body, long neck and tail, and long limbs. Although the animal was aquatic, the limbs were less specialized for swimming than they were in more advanced sauropterygians such as pistosaurs, pliosaurids, and plesiosaurids.
What did Nothosaurus eat?
Nothosaurus lived in warm shallow seas and rivers, so it would most likely eat animals like fish and crabs, it may also have eaten eggs, a Nothosaurus fossil was found with a Coelophysis hatchling in its stomach area implying that either Coelophysis babies were extremely careless or Nothosaurs ambushed young dinosaurs …
When did the Nothosaurus go extinct?
Nothosaurus (“false lizard”, from the Ancient Greek nothos (νόθος), “illegitimate”, and sauros (σαῦρος), “lizard”) is an extinct genus of sauropterygian reptile from the Triassic period, approximately 240–210 million years ago, with fossils being distributed from North Africa and Europe to China.
Why did Nothosaurus go extinct?
This is due to the large scale mass extinction event that occured at the Triassic-Jurassic Period boundary, which killed off between a third and half of all life on Earth – the final nail in the coffin which saw the end of the older orders of reptiles having influence on the ecosystems on land and sea, and the …
How much did a Nothosaurus weigh?
Nothosaurus was a medium-sized marine reptile, measuring about 10 – 13 feet (3 – 4 m) in length and weighed 180 – 330 lbs.
How long ago did the Nothosaurus live?
247.2 million years ago – 201.3 million years ago (Anisian – Late Triassic)Nothosaurus / Lived
When was the Nothosaurus discovered?
1834
Nothosaurus lived in the seas during the Middle to Late Triassic period, 240 – 210 million years ago. It shared the waters with other sea creatures like Tanystropheus and Cymbospondylus. Nothosaurus was first discovered in 1834. Fossils of them have been distributed from North Africa to Europe and even in China.
When did Nothosaurus live?
Where did the Nothosaurus live?
Nothosaurus is believed to have inhabited modern-day North Africa, China, and Europe based on the fossils discovered. It is classified as a sauropterygian and lived during the Triassic period, that is, around 240-210 million years ago.
