Kimmerosaurus

Name: Kimmerosaurus (Kimmeridge lizard).
Phonetic: Kim-mer-oh-sore-us.
Named By: Brown - 1981.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Sauropterygia, Plesiosauria, Plesiosauroidea, Cryptoclididae.
Species: K. langhami (type).
Type: Piscivore.
Size: Uncertain due to incomplete fossil material.
Known locations: England, Dorset - Kimmeridge Clay.
Time period: Kimmeridgian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Skull and cervical (neck) vertebrae.

       Because nothing is known about Kimmerosaurus from below the neck vertebrae it is impossible to say exactly how the body of Kimmerosaurus looked. However another plesiosaur from the same formation called Colymbosaurus is known only from its post cranial skeleton. Together these two separate genera may in fact represent the same plesiosaur, but only a more complete specimen of either one could confirm this.
       As a member of the crptoclididae, Kimmerosaurus would have likely lived in a similar manner as others of the group including Cryptoclidus.

Further reading
- The English Upper Jurassic Plesiosauroidea (Reptilia) and a review of the phylogeny and classification of the Plesiosauria. - Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) 35(4):253-347. - D. S. Brown - 1981.

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