Genus
Valid Extinct

Traskasaura

O’Keefe et al. 2025

Traskasaura is an extinct genus of basal elasmosaurid plesiosaurs from the Late Cretaceous Haslam Formation of British Columbia, Canada. The genus contains a single species, Traskasaura sandrae, known from three partial skeletons. It is the first elasmosaurid discovered in and named from British Columbia.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
3
Group
Sauroptérygiens
Carnivore aquatic, depth=surface Marine
Traskasaura
click to enlarge
Puntledge River elasmosaur[1], Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada © D. Gordon E. Robertson · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia
PBDB ↗ Wikipedia ↗
Classification
Sauropterygia Suborder
›
Plesiosauria Order
›
Plesiosauroidea Superfamily
›
Elasmosauridae Family
›
Traskasaura Genus
Fossil sites 3 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇨🇦 Canada
3
Geological formations
Haslam
3
Temporal distribution
Santonian (85.7–83.6 Ma)
3
Species (1)
Traskasaura sandrae 86 Ma
Images 1
Bibliography
Original description
F. R. O’Keefe, E. Armour Smith, and R. O. Clark, R. A. Otero, A. Perella, P. Trask. 2025. A name for the Provincial Fossil of British Columbia: a strange new elasmosaur taxon from the Santonian of Vancouver Island. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 23(1):2489938 DOI ↗
Bibliography (1)
F. R. O’Keefe, E. Armour Smith, and R. O. Clark, R. A. Otero, A. Perella, P. Trask. 2025. A name for the Provincial Fossil of British Columbia: a strange new elasmosaur taxon from the Santonian of Vancouver Island. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 23(1):2489938 DOI ↗