Genus
Valid Extinct

Brachauchenius

Williston 1903

Brachauchenius is an extinct genus of pliosaurs that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what are now North America and North Africa. Only one species is known, B. lucasi, initially described by Samuel Wendell Williston in 1903 from a partial fossil skeleton discovered in a quarry in Kansas, United States. Many other fossil specimens attributed to the species were subsequently discovered, including an individual from Morocco whose presence was made official in 2016. Many contemporary pliosaur specimens were formerly attributed to Brachauchenius, but have since been reidentified as belonging to other genera or are recognized as indeterminate.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
11
Group
Sauroptérygiens
Carnivore nektonic Marine
Brachauchenius
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Wikimedia
Brachauchenius
Brachauchenius
PBDB ↗ Wikipedia ↗
Classification
Sauropterygia Suborder
›
Plesiosauria Order
›
Pliosauroidea Superfamily
›
Pliosauridae Family
›
Thalassophonea Unranked clade
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Brachaucheninae Subfamily
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Brachauchenius Genus
Measurements
Length
9 m ⓘ
Fossil sites 11 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇺🇸 United States
8
🇨🇴 Colombia
1
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
1
🇲🇦 Morocco
1
Geological formations
Greenhorn Limestone
2
Tropic Shale
2
Paja
1
Dakota
1
Eagle Ford
1
Akrabou
1
Temporal distribution
Turonian (93.9–89.8 Ma)
5
Cenomanian (100.5–93.9 Ma)
5
Barremian (125.77–121.4 Ma)
1
Species (1)
Brachauchenius lucasi 101 Ma
Images 5
Bibliography
Original description
S. W. Williston. 1903. North American plesiosaurs, part 1. Geological Series Field Museum of Natural History 3(1):1-77 DOI ↗
Bibliography (11)
D. Madzia, S. Sachs, and J. Lindgren. 2018. Morphological and phylogenetic aspects of the dentition of Megacephalosaurus eulerti, a pliosaurid from the Turonian of Kansas, USA, with remarks on the cranial anatomy of the taxon. Geological Magazine 156(7):1201-1216 DOI ↗
D. Angst and N. Bardet. 2016. A new record of the pliosaur Brachauchenius lucasi Williston, 1903 (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) of Turonian (Late Cretaceous) age, Morocco. Geological Magazine 153(3):449-459 DOI ↗
R. B. J. Benson, M. Evans, and A. S. Smith, J. Sassoon, S. Moore-Faye, H. F. Ketchum, R. Forrest. 2013. A giant pliosaurid skull from the Late Jurassic of England. PLoS ONE 8(5):e65989 DOI ↗
A. Bell and M. J. Everhart. 2011. Remains of small ornithurine birds from a Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) microsite in Russell County, north-central Kansas. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 114(1-2):115-123 DOI ↗
J. Bourdon and M. J. Everhart. 2010. Occurrence of the extinct carpet shark, Orectoloboides, in the Dakota Formation (Late Cretaceous; Middle Cenomanian) of Kansas. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 113:237-242 DOI ↗
L. B. Albright, D. D. Gillette, and A. L. Titus. 2007. Plesiosaurs from the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian-Turonian) Tropic Shale of southern Utah, part 1: new records of the pliosaur Brachauchenius lucasi. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27(1):31-40 DOI ↗
O. Hampe. 2005. Considerations on a Brachauchenius skeleton (Pliosauroidea)from the lower Paja Formation (late Barremian) of Villa de Leyva area (Colombia). Mitteilungen des Museums für Naturkunde Berlin, Geowissenschaftliche Reihe 8:37-51 DOI ↗
K. Shimada, J. A. Parkin, and J. M. Palermo, B. A. Schumacher. 2003. Late Cretaceous marine vertebrates from the basal Greenhorn Limestone in southeastern Colorado. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 23(3):96A
J. D. Stewart and J. E. Martin. 1993. Late Cretaceous selachians and associated marine vertebrates from the Dakota Rose granite quarry, Grant County, South Dakota. Proceedings of the South Dakota Academy of Science 72:241-248
S. W. Williston. 1903. North American plesiosaurs, part 1. Geological Series Field Museum of Natural History 3(1):1-77 DOI ↗
S. W. Williston. 1903. On the structure of the plesiosaurian skull. Science 17(442):980 DOI ↗