Liopleurodon
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 Liopleurodon ferox harassing Leedsichthys problematicus
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Extinct (fossil)
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Liopleurodon (IPA: /lioʊ.ˈplʊ.ɹʌ.dɑn/, meaning 'smooth-sided tooth') is a genus of Pliosaurs, which were large, carnivorous marine reptiles that lived during the Middle to Late Jurassic Period (c. 160 million to 155 million years ago (mya)). The only properly described species of this genus is Liopleurodon ferox, first identified by H.E Sauvage in 1873.
Four strong paddle-like limbs suggest that Liopleurodon was a powerful swimmer. Its four-flipper mode of propulsion is characteristic of all plesiosaurs. A study involving a swimming robot has demonstrated that although this form of propulsion is not especially efficient, it provides very good acceleration - a desirable character in a predator. Studies of the skull have showed that it could probably scan the water with its nostrils to ascertain the source of certain smells. Liopleurodon was carnivorous and it is unlikely that it had many, if any, predators.
Fossils of the creature have been found mainly in Germany, France, Russia and the United Kingdom, from the Jurassic period, when Europe was covered by a large sea. The issue of its maximum size has been somewhat controversial. Most fossil evidence of Liopleurodon ferox seems to indicate that these beasts grew from 7 to 10 meters (23-33 feet long). However, as with its relative Kronosaurus, there is some uncertainty whether current reconstructions are correct. Fossil evidence from Great Britain indicates much larger contemporary pliosaurs, up to 18 metres (60 feet long) or even longer but the evidence is too fragmentary to determine whether the find belonged to Liopleurodon or to a species from some other genus. There have been unconfirmed reports of a 4 meter (14 feet long) long lower jaw of an unknown species of giant pliosaur found on the Dorset coast.
In 2002, the discovery of a very large pliosaur in Mexico was announced. This came to be known as the 'Monster of Aramberri'. Even conservative estimates gave a length of at least 15 metres, despite the possibility of it being a juvenile specimen. However, although widely reported as such, it did not belong to the Liopleurodon genus. Estimates of maximum size had already been circulated in the 1999 BBC documentary series Walking with Dinosaurs, where an enormous pliosaur was presented as a 25-meter-long Liopleurodon. If this size given by the BBC is regarded as accurate then it would make Liopleurodon the largest marine predator of all time and so the largest predator of all time.
[edit] In popular culture
In 1999, Liopleurodon was featured in an episode the BBC television series Walking with Dinosaurs. In the program, a Liopleurodon was depicted attacking and devouring a land-dwelling dinosaur (Eustreptospondylus), before becoming beached during a typhoon and suffocating under its own weight. The depiction of Liopleurodon leaping onto the land in order to catch land-based prey is entirely fictional, though the program's producers state that the behavior was inspired by that of orca whales.[citation needed]). Liopleurodon subsequently appeared in a 2003 follow-up to Walking With Dinosaurs entitled Sea Monsters. Having been featured in the popular BBC series, Liopleurodon later appeared in such films as The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water, and as a humorous non-sequitur in the Internet-based Jason Steele short "Charlie the Unicorn".[1]
