Adriosaurus

Name: Adriosaurus.
Phonetic: A-dree-oh-sore-us.
Named By: Harry Govier Seeley‭ ‬-‭ ‬1881.‭
Classification: Chordata,‭ ‬Reptilia,‭ ‬Anguimorpha,‭ ‬Pythonomorpha,‭ ‬Ophidiomorpha.
Species: A.‭ ‬suessi‭ (‬type‭)‬,‭ ‬A.‭ ‬microbrachis,‭ ‬A.‭ ‬skrbinensis.
Diet: Carnivore/Piscivore.
Size: Between‭ ‬25‭ ‬and‭ ‬30‭ ‬centimetres long.
Known locations: Slovenia.
Time period: Cenomanian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Several specimens.

       Adriosaurus was an aquatic lizard that is often described as being snake-like.‭ ‬This is because Adriosaurus had a thin elongated body similar to a snakes proportions,‭ ‬yet still retained small limbs.‭ ‬These limbs are widely thought to have been vestigial,‭ ‬which means that they were present yet no longer fulfilled a practical purpose and at the time of its discovery,‭ ‬Adriosaurus was taken as one of the first known transitional forms that showed lizards evolving into limbless snakes.

Further reading
- On remains of a small lizard from Neocomian rocks of Comen, near Trieste, preserved in the Geological Museum of the University of Vienna. - Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 37:52-56. - H. G. Seeley - 1881.
- Vestigial forelimbs and axial elongation in a 95 million-year-old non-snake squamate. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27 (1): 1–7. - Alessandro Palci & Michael W. Caldwell - 2007.
- Redescription of Acteosaurus tommasinii von Meyer, 1860, and a discussion of evolutionary trends within the clade Ophidiomorpha. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 30 (1): 94–108. - Alessandro Palci & Michael W. Caldwell - 2010a.
- A new species of marine ophidiomorph lizard, Adriosaurus skrbinensis, from the Upper Cretaceous of Slovenia. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 30 (3): 747–755. - Michael W. Caldwell & Alessandro Palci - 2010b.

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