page_title: Pliosaurus
section_title: Other species
hierarchical_section_title: Pliosaurus / Discovery and species / Other species
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Fossil of Pliosaurus, an extinct reptile - Took the picture at Museum of Paleontology, Tuebingen
context_page_description: Pliosaurus is an extinct genus of thalassophonean pliosaurid known from the Kimmeridgian and Tithonian stages of Europe and South America. Their diet would have included fish, cephalopods, and marine reptiles. This genus has contained many species in the past but recent reviews found only six to be valid, while the validity of two additional species awaits a petition to the ICZN. Pliosaurus currently consists of the type species P. brachydeirus, and also P. brachyspondylus, P. carpenteri, P. funkei, P. kevani, P. macromerus, P. rossicus and P. westburyensis, as well as the invalid P. portentificus. Most species of Pliosaurus are notable for their large body size, while the others, P. brachydeirus, P. brachyspondylus and P. portentificus, are known exclusively from immature individuals. Species of this genus are differentiated from other pliosaurids based on seven autapomorphies, including teeth that are triangular in cross section.
context_section_description: Apart from the species listed above, only Pliosaurus irgisensis might represent another valid species of Pliosaurus. It was first described and named by Nestor Ivanovich Novozhilov in 1948, under the name Peloneustes irgisensis. The specific name is derived from the name of the Maly Irgiz River, where the holotype was found. The holotype, PIN 426 housed at Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, consists of partial cranium and postcranium of a medium-sized individual. The cranial remains of PIN 426 are currently suffering from the effects of pyrite decay, and its associated remains have been lost. It was collected at Savel-evsk Mine No. 1, of eastern Saratov Oblast, European part of Russia, from the middle Volgian stage (also known as middle Tithonian). Novozhilov (1964) reassigned the material to a new genus, Strongylokrotaphus, meaning "round" (strongylos) "temple" or "head" (krotaphos) in Ancient Greek. These assignments were criticized by other workers, including Tarlo (1960), Halstead (1971) and Storrs et al. (2000), because of the general and non-specific diagnosis for Strongylokrotaphus, and differences from the type species of Peloneustes. P. irgisensis might be synonymous with P. rossicus based on their similar sizes and stratigraphic co-occurrence, as the only difference between the species is ontogenetic. Knutsen (2012) considered the material to be non-diagnostic and referred P. irgisensis to Pliosauridae indet, as dentition, which is autapomorphic in Pliosaurus, was not described from PIN 426. Benson et al. (2013) also considered this species to be a nomen dubium, referring it to Thalassophonea indet, and stating that PIN 426 requires re-description.
  Pliosaurus portentificus is known from the late Kimmeridgian of England. Considered by Knutsen (2012) and Benson et al. (2013) to be a nomen dubium, with its holotype specimen most likely being a juvenile individual of one of the other species of Pliosaurus
caption: Paddle of P. chilensis
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