Woolungasaurus
Name:
Woolungasaurus
(Woolunga lizard).
Phonetic: Woo-lun-gah-sore-us.
Named By: P. O. Persson - 1960.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Sauropterygia, Plesiosauria, Elasmosauridae.
Species: W. glendowerensis
(type).
Diet: Piscivore.
Size: Estimated at 9.5 meters long.
Known locations: Australia, Queensland -
Wallumbilla Formation and South Australia - Maree Formation.
Time period: Albian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Several specimens of partial
remains, including a skull.
Woolungasaurus
was an elasmosaurid plesiosaur,
the group that are noted for having
particularly long necks typified by the type genus Elasmosaurus.
Out
of this large sub group of plesiosaurs, Hydralmosaurus
from North
America is thought to be one of the most similar to Woolungasaurus.
Another elasmosaurid plesiosaur that Woolungasaurus
would have shared
its waters with however is Eromangasaurus.
The
long necks of elasmosaurid plesiosaurs like Woolungasaurus
are thought
to have afforded them extra reach so that they could catch fish in
their mouths. In Woolungasaurus the mouth had up
to forty long but
relatively thin teeth that were perfect for piercing the soft bodies of
fish. However these teeth were next to useless for shearing the flesh
into bite sized pieces, so Woolungasaurus
probably swallowed prey
whole, indicating a specialisation into smaller fish species.
Additionally Woolungasaurus probably swallowed
small stones for use as
gastroliths to break down the harder prey parts like bone, something
that seems to have been the norm in plesiosaurs.
Although
a large marine reptile in its own right, Woolungasaurus
would have
been a potential prey item for large predatory pliosaurs such as
Kronosaurus,
which were also active in the same waters that
Woolungasaurus swam in.
Further reading
- Lower Cretaceous Plesiosaurians (Reptilia) from Australia. - Lunds
Universitets Arsskrift 56(12): 1-23. - P. O. Persson - 1960.
- Redescription of Woolungasaurus glendowerensis
(Plesiosauria:
Elasmosauridae) from the Lower Cretaceous of Northeast Queensland. -
Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 49(2): 713-731. - Sven Sachs - 2004.
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