Nichollsia (plesiosaur)

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Nichollsia
Fossil range: Early Cretaceous
Two Nichollsia swimming in the Boreal Sea.
Two Nichollsia swimming in the Boreal Sea.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Superorder: Sauropterygia
Order: Plesiosauria
Suborder: Plesiosauroidea
Genus: Nichollsia
Species
  • N. borealis (type)

Nichollsia (named after paleontological curator Betsy Nicholls) is an extinct genus of plesiosaur from the Early Cretaceous Boreal Sea of North America. The type species is N. borealis, found in early Albian deposits of Alberta, Canada. Nichollsia fills an approximate 40-million-year gap in the fossil record of North American plesiosaurs.

It was discovered in a Syncrude mine in Alberta, Canada in 1994. The fossil is on display at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, missing only the left forelimb and scapula, lost when the beast was discovered accidentally by 100-ton electric shovel operators Greg Fisher and Lorne Cundal [1].

As the generic name Nichollsia is preoccupied by an isopod, the original authors will be proposing a replacement generic name. [2].

[edit] References

  • Druckenmiller, P.S.; Russell, A.P. (2008). Skeletal anatomy of an exceptionally complete specimen of a new genus of plesiosaur from the Early Cretaceous (Early Albian) of northeastern Alberta, Canada. Palaeontographica Abteilung A 283: 1-33.


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