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On the hunt for Cretaceous Plesiosaur specimens


Laura.A.S

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Hello! 

I am an MPhil student studying plesiosaurs, I am really struggling to locate Cretaceous aged specimens. Since I am based in the UK, most of the museum collections contain Jurassic age fossils so you can image I have an abundance of these! I thought it would be best to ask on the fossil forum since people from all over the world use this. 

 

Does anyone know of any museums in Europe or the US that contain large marine reptile collections that might contain a lot of plesiosaurs? 

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I believe the Oxford University Museum still has quite a collection of plesiosaurs including at least some Cretaceous ones..:)

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4 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

I believe the Oxford University Museum still has quite a collection of plesiosaurs including at least some Cretaceous ones..:)

I have already visited Oxford and unfortunately the only specimens of use to me were Jurassic aged. :) 

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1 hour ago, Laura.A.S said:

Hello! 

I am an MPhil student studying plesiosaurs, I am really struggling to locate Cretaceous aged specimens. Since I am based in the UK, most of the museum collections contain Jurassic age fossils so you can image I have an abundance of these! I thought it would be best to ask on the fossil forum since people from all over the world use this. 

 

Does anyone know of any museums in Europe or the US that contain large marine reptile collections that might contain a lot of plesiosaurs? 

SMU Texas 

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Edit: I should add I have already visited NHM - London, Sedwick Museum - Cambridge and the Manchester Museum. And I will be visiting several museums near Stuttgart - Germany.

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1 minute ago, Laura.A.S said:

Edit: I should add I have already visited NHM - London, Sedwick Museum - Cambridge and the Manchester Museum. And I will be visiting several museums near Stuttgart - Germany.

I find a few scattered examples on occasion at the North Sulphur River Texas. 

download.jpg

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1 minute ago, JarrodB said:

I find a few scattered examples on occasion at the North Sulphur River Texas. 

download.jpg

Ah nice, unfortunately I don't need to find them myself - though I wish I was! I just need to locate museums that have some good plesiosaur specimens. 

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I think the Sternberg Museum of Natural History (in Hays, Kansas) has quite a few Late Cretaceous marine reptile specimens (including pliosaur and polycotylid material) - you could get in touch with the curator Mike Everhart (meverhar@fhsu.edu), he might be able to send you some pictures of specimens :) 

Edited by The Amateur Paleontologist
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Opalised fossils are the best: a wonderful mix between paleontology and mineralogy!

 

Q. Where do dinosaurs study?

A. At Khaan Academy!...

 

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Do not forget to visit the world oldest Plesiosaur (201 Ma):

https://www.lwl-naturkundemuseum-muenster.de/de/bodendenkmalpflege/forschung/altester-plesiosaurier-der-welt/

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321798517_A_Triassic_plesiosaurian_skeleton_and_bone_histology_inform_on_evolution_of_a_unique_body_plan

They have the holotype and only existing specimen of Gronausaurus wegneri in Münster, too:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257787562_The_forgotten_remains_of_a_leptocleidid_plesiosaur_Sauropterygia_Plesiosauroidea_from_the_Early_Cretaceous_of_Gronau_Munsterland_Westphalia_Germany

 

Furthermore:

Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt/Germany

Goldfuss-Museum in Bonn/Germany

http://www.dinosaurier-interesse.de/web/Linklisten/Museum.html

 

In general have a look on the geological map where marine cretaceous sediments are present.

The museums there usually held some pieces....;)

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1 hour ago, The Amateur Paleontologist said:

I think the Sternberg Museum of Natural History (in Hays, Kansas) has quite a few Late Cretaceous marine reptile specimens (including pliosaur and polycotylid material) - you could get in touch with the curator Mike Everhart (meverhar@fhsu.edu), he might be able to send you some pictures of specimens :) 

Ah thank you so much, I will check it out! I have actually read some of Mikes papers so that's great. 

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Also the Royal Tyrell Museum In Alberta, Canada has some Cretaceous plesiosaur specimens from the Western Interior Seaway.

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Yes,

Goldfußmuseum here in Bonn has got a nice one, though it´s jurassic, cryptoclydus eurymerus.

 

Best Regards,

J

Try to learn something about everything and everything about something

Thomas Henry Huxley

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4 hours ago, dinosaur man said:

Also the Royal Tyrell Museum In Alberta, Canada has some Cretaceous plesiosaur specimens from the Western Interior Seaway.

Seconding this, as well as the Royal Saskatchewan Museum. Western Canada has many many Late Cretaceous plesiosaurs and these two museums both catalogue a bunch.

 

(I even recently donated an elasmosaur skull to the RSM)

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9 minutes ago, Norki said:

Seconding this, as well as the Royal Saskatchewan Museum. Western Canada has many many Late Cretaceous plesiosaurs and these two museums both catalogue a bunch.

 

(I even recently donated an elasmosaur skull to the RSM)

Congratulations!!

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17 hours ago, Norki said:

Seconding this, as well as the Royal Saskatchewan Museum. Western Canada has many many Late Cretaceous plesiosaurs and these two museums both catalogue a bunch.

 

21 hours ago, Jeffrey P said:

The MAPS collection in West Long Branch New Jersey has some Upper Cretaceous plesiosaur material.

 

21 hours ago, dinosaur man said:

Also the Royal Tyrell Museum In Alberta, Canada has some Cretaceous plesiosaur specimens from the Western Interior Seaway

Thank you all! I will check them out!

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