#attenborosaurus

Here you have Attenborosaurus catching himself a meal :D

Approximately 190 million years ago, a great float of Attenborosaurus swiftly navigate their pelagic environment in their hunt for fish. - Attenborosaurus is an extinct and mainly piscivorous marine reptile that existed during the early Jurassic. It is a comparatively primitive pliosaurid, closer related to the short-necked plesiosaurian marine reptiles than actual plesiosaurs. Originally, the holotype specimen was thought to be a plesiosaur in 1881, but was assigned to the Attenborosaurus genus by Robert T. Bakker in 1993, thus becoming its type species- A. conybeari. -

yesterday on #Paleostream flocking we did a tribute to Sir David Attenborough!

we sketched Attenborosaurus conybeari, Microleo attenboroughi, Caipirasuchus attenboroughi, and Materpiscis attenboroughi

Special David Attenborough 100th anniversary Flocking Together

Attenborosaurus/Microleo

08/05/2026 Attenborosaurus

Happy Pride Month and Happy Jurassic June! This critter right here is Attenborosaurus an extinct genus of pliosaurid from the Early Jurassic of Dorset, England. The discovery of Attenborosaurus was unorthodox to say the least. When first uncovered the remains were referred to the Plesiosaurus genus as a new species, P. conybeari, named after William Conybeare who was one of two people who named the Plesiosaurus genus back in 1821. Unfortunately these remains were destroyed during a bombing raid in World War II, but a plaster cast of them was made before this happened which has meant all but the original skin impressions can still be studied. Then in 1993 upon further detail examination Dr. Robert T. Bakker came to the realization that while similar to Plesiosaurus, the remains were different enough to warrant the creation of a new genus; Attenborosaurus which was is named after Sir David Attenborough, who is perhaps the best known nature documentary narrator of the last century. Measuring some 16ft in length Attenborosaurus had the small head, long neck, round body with four flippers that are associated with all plesiosaurs. The skin impressions with the original fossils are noted as being a smooth membrane that was devoid of any noticeably large scales. This smooth skin probably helped to streamline Attenborosaurus as it swam through the water by reducing drag from water resistance. In life Attenborosaurus would have feed by approaching shoals of fish and cephalopods using its long neck to reach in and snap up prey, with its sharp teeth and trap like mouth ensuring a secure grip and little to no chance of escape.

Art can be found at the links below

(The bracket color names are just for thematic organization and are NOT representative of the candidates!)

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