Trinacromerum
| Trinacromerum Temporal range: Late Cretaceous
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| A specimen of Trinacromerum at the Royal Ontario Museum | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | †Sauropterygia |
| Order: | †Plesiosauria |
| Family: | †Polycotylidae |
| Genus: | †Trinacromerum Cragin, 1888 |
| Species: | †T. bentonianum
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| Binomial name | |
| †Trinacromerum bentonianum Cragin, 1888
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Trinacromerum is an extinct genus of sauropterygian reptile, a member of the polycotylid plesiosaurs. It contains a single species, T. bentonianum. Specimens that lived during the Late Cretaceous period have been discovered in what is now modern Kansas and Manitoba.[1]
Description
Trinacromerum was 3 meters (9.8 feet) long. Its teeth show that it fed on small fish.[1]
The long flippers of Trinacromerum enabled it to achieve high swimming speeds.[1] Its physical appearance was described by Richard Ellis as akin to a "four-flippered penguin."[2]
Classification
Below is a cladogram of polycotylid relationships from Ketchum & Benson, 2011.[3]
See also
References
- ^ a b c Ellis, Richard (2003). Sea Dragons: Predators of the Prehistoric Oceans. University Press of Kansas. p. 189. ISBN 0-7006-1269-6.
- ^ Ellis, 190
- ^ "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". Special Papers in Palaeontology. 86: 109–129. 2011. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2011.01083.x.
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External links
PaleoDB Entry on Manitoba discovery
Wikispecies has information related to Trinacromerum.
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