Simolestes (Redirected from Simolestes vorax)

Simolestes
Temporal range: 171.6–145.5 Ma MiddleLate Jurassic
Diagram of the skull of S. vorax
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Superorder: Sauropterygia
Order: Plesiosauria
Family: Pliosauridae
Clade: Thalassophonea
Genus: Simolestes
Andrews, 1909
Species
  • S. vorax (type)
  • S. indicus
Synonyms

Simolestes (meaning "snub-nosed thief") is an extinct pliosaurid genus that lived in the Middle to Late Jurassic. The type specimen, BMNH R. 3319 is an almost complete but crushed skeleton diagnostic to Simolestes vorax, dating back to the Callovian of the Oxford Clay formation, England. The genus might also be known from the Tithonian Bhuj Formation of India (S.indicus), however the referral of this species to Simolestes is dubious. S.keileni from France was moved to the new genus Lorrainosaurus in 2023.

Description

Scale diagram, presenting the largest specimens of both species

Simolestes possessed a short, high, and wide skull which was built to resist torsional forces when hunting.

The largest specimens of S.vorax reached approximately 4.6 metres (15 ft) in length, if a head to body ratio similar to Liopleurodon is applied.

Palaeobiology

Like most Pliosaurs, Simolestes possessed salt secreting glands, which would have enabled the animal to maintain salt balance and drink seawater. Recent studies on Plesiosaur locomotion indicate that Simolestes, like other Plesiosaurs, possessed a unique bauplan for movement, which differs from modern organisms in similar niches.

Skull specimen housed at the Peterborough Museum.

Feeding habits

Simolestes's exact feeding habits are unclear. The current consensus, however, is that the genus was primarily teuthophagous, consuming belemnites, soft teuthoids and ammonites. It is possible Simolestes was also ecologically separated from other contemporary pliosaur genera such as Liopleurodon and Pachycostasaurus by hunting in deeper waters or at night, as modern cephalopods exhibit diurnal feeding cycles, spending daylight in deeper, safer waters, and rising at night to feed.

Classification

Restoration of S. vorax

The cladogram below follows a 2011 analysis by paleontologists Hilary F. Ketchum and Roger B. J. Benson, and reduced to genera only.

Pliosauroidea
Rhomaleosauridae

Anningasaura

"Plesiosaurus" macrocephalus

Archaeonectrus

Macroplata

Atychodracon

Eurycleidus

Rhomaleosaurus

Meyerasaurus

Maresaurus

Pliosauridae

Thalassiodracon

Hauffiosaurus

Attenborosaurus

BMNH R2439

Marmornectes

"Pliosaurus" andrewsi

OUMNH J.02247

Peloneustes

Simolestes

Liopleurodon

Pliosaurus

Megacephalosaurus

Brachauchenius

Kronosaurus


This page was last updated at 2024-03-15 13:21 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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