page_title: Timeline of plesiosaur research
section_title: 2010s
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of plesiosaur research / 21st century / 2010s
caption_attribution_description: Atychodracon megacephalus (formerly Rhomaleosaurus), a pliosaur from the Early Jurassic of Europe, pencil drawing
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: 2010
  Sennikov and Arkhangelsky described the new genus and species Alexeyisaurus karnoushenkoi.
  Smith and Vincent described the new genus Meyerasaurus.
  2011
  F. Robin O'Keefe and Luis M. Chiappe concluded the debate on plesiosaur reproduction, reporting the discovery of a gravid female plesiosaur with a single large embryo preserved inside her. They concluded that like marine mammals, but unlike many reptiles, plesiosaurs had a K-selected reproductive strategy.
  Berezin described the new genus and species Abyssosaurus nataliae
  Benson and others described the new species Hauffiosaurus tomistomimus
  Ketchum and Benson described the new genus and species Marmornectes candrewi
  Schwermann and Sander described the new genus and species Westphaliasaurus simonsensii 
  Vincent and others described the new genus and species Zarafasaura oceanis
  2012
  Kubo, Mitchell and Henderson described the new genus and species Albertonectes vanderveldei.
  Vincent and Benson described the new genus and species Anningasaura lymense.
  Benson, Evans and Druckenmiller described the new genera and species Avalonnectes arturi, Eoplesiosaurus antiquior, and Stratesaurus taylori.
  Knutsen, Druckenmiller and Hurum described the new genus and species Djupedalia engeri.
  McKean described the new species Dolichorhynchops tropicensis.
  Smith, Araújo and Mateus described the new genus and species Lusonectes sauvagei.
  Knutsen, Druckenmiller and Hurum described the new species Pliosaurus funkei
  Knutsen, Druckenmiller and Hurum described the new genus Spitrasaurus and two species, S. wensaasi, and S. larseni.
  2013
  Benson and others described the new genus Hastanectes and the new genus and species Vectocleidus pastorum.
  Vincent, Bardet and Mattioli described the new genus and species Cryonectes neustriacus
  Hampe described the new genus and species Gronausaurus wegneri
  Schumacher, Carpenter and Everhart described the new genus and species Megacephalosaurus eulerti
  Benson and others described the new Pliosaurus species P. carpenteri, P. kevani, and P. westburyensis.
  2014
  Otero and others described the new species Aristonectes quiriquinensis.
  Gasparini and O’Gorman described the new species Pliosaurus patagonicus.
  2015
  Cau and Fanti described the new genus and species Anguanax zignoi.
  Smith described the new genus Atychodracon.
  Araújo and others described the new genus and species Cardiocorax mukulu.
  O’Gorman and others described the new genus and species Vegasaurus molyi.
  A study on the teeth replacement patterns during the ontogeny in pliosaurids is published by Sassoon, Foffa & Marek (2015).
  2016
  Otero and others described the new genus and species Alexandronectes zealandiensis.
  O’Gorman described the new genus Kawanectes.
  Páramo and others described the new genus and species Stenorhynchosaurus munozi.
  Cheng and others described the new genus Dawazisaurus.
  Klein and others described the new species Lariosaurus vosseveldensis.
  Efimov, Meleshin and Nikiforov described the new species Polycotylus sopozkoi.
  A reassessment of fossils attributed to the genus Polyptychodon is published by Madzia (2016), who considers the type species of this genus, P. interruptus, to be nomen dubium, and the genus Polyptychodon to be a wastebasket taxon.
  O'Gorman (2016) provides a new diagnosis for Fresnosaurus drescheri and describes additional plesiosaur material from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Moreno Formation (California, USA), which he interprets as representing the first aristonectine plesiosaur reported from the Northern Hemisphere.
  A redescription of the holotype specimen of Brancasaurus brancai and a study on the phylogenetic relationships of the species is published by Sachs, Hornung & Kear (2016), who consider the species Gronausaurus wegneri to be a junior synonym of B. brancai.
  2017
  Gómez-Pérez and Noè described the new genus and species Acostasaurus pavachoquensis.
  Sachs, Hornung, and Kear described the new genus and species Lagenanectes richterae.
  Fischer and others described the new genus and species Luskhan itilensis.
  Frey and others described the new genus and species M
caption: Life restoration of Atychodracon.
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