page_title: Timeline of plesiosaur research
section_title: 1940s
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of plesiosaur research / 20th century / 1940s
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Fossil of Attenborosaurus, an extinct reptile-- Took the photo at Natural History Museum, London
context_page_description: This timeline of plesiosaur research is a chronologically ordered list of important fossil discoveries, controversies of interpretation, taxonomic revisions, and cultural portrayals of plesiosaurs, an order of marine reptiles that flourished during the Mesozoic Era. The first scientifically documented plesiosaur fossils were discovered during the early 19th century by Mary Anning. Plesiosaurs were actually discovered and described before dinosaurs. They were also among the first animals to be featured in artistic reconstructions of the ancient world, and therefore among the earliest prehistoric creatures to attract the attention of the lay public. Plesiosaurs were originally thought to be a kind of primitive transitional form between marine life and terrestrial reptiles. However, now plesiosaurs are recognized as highly derived marine reptiles descended from terrestrial ancestors.
  Early researchers thought that plesiosaurs laid eggs like most reptiles. They commonly imagined plesiosaurs crawling up beaches and burying eggs like turtles. However, later opinion shifted towards the idea that plesiosaurs gave live birth and never went on dry land.
context_section_description: 1940
  A complete specimen of Plesiosaurus conybeari, including preserved soft tissues, was destroyed in a bombing raid against Bristol. Fortunately, a cast of the specimen survived in the British Museum.
  White described the new species Seeleyosaurus holzmadensis.
  1941
  Cabrera described the new species Aristonectes parvidens.
  1942
  Young described the new species Sinopliosaurus weiyuanensis.
  1943
  Welles described the new species Aphrosaurus furlongi, Morenosaurus stocki, Thalassomedon haningtoni, Fresnosaurus drescheri, and Hydrotherosaurus alexandrae.
  Welles argued that plesiosaurs did have flexible necks after all.
  1944
  Elmer S. Riggs named a new species of Trinacromerum, T. willistoni. The type specimen had been found by a construction crew working on US Highway 81, who donated it to the University of Kansas Museum of Paleontology.
  Riggs described the new species Trinacromerum willistoni based on the 1936 discovery KUVP 5070.
  1948
  Soviet paleontologist Nestor Novozhilov described the Volga pliosaur as a new species, Pliosaurus rossicus.
  Novozhilov described the species now known as Pliosaurus irgisensis.
  1949
  Welles described the species now known as Libonectes morgani.
  de la Torre and Rojas described the species now known as Vinialesaurus caroli.
caption: Cast of the "Plesiosaurus" now Attenborosaurus conybearei type specimen that was destroyed by Nazi bombers
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