plesiosaur

American  

[plee-see-uh-sawr] / ˈpli si əˌsɔr /

noun

1. any marine reptile of the extinct genus Plesiosaurus, from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, having a small head, a long neck, four paddlelike limbs, and a short tail.

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plesiosaur British  

/ ˈpliːsɪəˌsɔː /

noun

1. any of various extinct marine reptiles of the order Sauropterygia, esp any of the suborder Plesiosauria, of Jurassic and Cretaceous times, having a long neck, short tail, and paddle-like limbs See also ichthyosaur Compare dinosaur pterosaur

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plesiosaur Scientific  

/ plē′sē-ə-sôr′ /

1. Any of various large, extinct marine reptiles of the genus Plesiosaurus and related genera of the Mesozoic Era. Most plesiosaurs had a small head on a long neck and a broad body with paddlelike limbs; one group had a large head on a short neck. The exact relationship between plesiosaurs and other reptiles is not known.

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Other Word Forms

• plesiosauroid adjective

Etymology

Origin of plesiosaur

< New Latin Plesiosaurus (1821), equivalent to Greek plēsí ( os ) near, close to + -o- -o- + saûros -saur; originally so named because of its conjectured nearness to modern reptiles, relative to the ichthyosaurs

Example Sentences

Among the best is this long-extinct plesiosaur - Attenborosaurus conybeari.

From BBC • Nov. 10, 2023

Pliosaurs were a type of plesiosaur with short necks and massive skulls.

From Science Daily • Oct. 20, 2023

The 11-foot-long plesiosaur was discovered in the 1990s in Gloucestershire, England and is believed to have lived about 190 million years ago.

From Seattle Times • Jul. 11, 2023

Ever since it became clear that the famous 1934 photo of Nessie was fake, he has stopped believing that Nessie was a plesiosaur.

From New York Times • Aug. 4, 2022

The plesiosaur alone took her ten years of patient excavation.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson