page_title: Pannoniasaurus
section_title: Limbs
hierarchical_section_title: Pannoniasaurus / Paleobiology / Limbs
caption_attribution_description: English: Size of Pannoniasaurus compared to human.
context_page_description: Pannoniasaurus is an extinct genus of tethysaurine mosasauroid known from the Late Cretaceous Csehbánya Formation of Hungary. It contains a single species, Pannoniasaurus inexpectatus, dubbed "unexpected" because it was discovered in freshwater sediments, unlike other mosasaurs, which were marine predators. It was a medium-sized mosasaur, reaching up to 6 m in length.
context_section_description: It is difficult to estimate how the unknown girdle and limb elements of Pannonisasaurus may have looked. It had a primitive vertebral column, a posteriorly oriented ilium and an elongated humerus with a distal epiphysis, all most similar to aigialosaurs. These suggest that P. inexpectatus had an overall aigialosaur-like postcranial morphology (including plesiopelvia and plesiopedia). However, Dallasaurus, for example, has an anteriorly oriented, hydropelvic ilium in combination with primitive-looking proximal limb elements, and therefore a flattened, derived distal limb morphology is not entirely impossible for that taxon. For Pannoniasaurus a primitive morphology of the complete limbs in correlation with the primitive axial skeleton and pelvis is more probable, but far from certain. It is possible that the retention of a robust sacrum, pelvis and possibly non-paddle-like limbs were used to help to propel the body forward from the bottom during prey-capture in shallow water, similar to extant crocodiles.
caption: Size of Pannoniasaurus inexpectatus compared to human
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