Luskhan

Luskhan (meaning "water spirit chief") is an extinct genus of brachauchenine pliosaur from the Cretaceous of Russia. The type and only species is Luskhan itilensis, named by Valentin Fischer and colleagues in 2017 from a well-preserved and nearly complete skeleton. As an early-diverging brachauchenine, Luskhan consequently exhibits an intermediate combination of traits seen in more basal (less specialized) and more derived (more specialized) pliosaurs. However, Luskhandeparts significantly from other pliosaurs in that it exhibits a lack of adaptations in its skull to feeding on large prey; its slender snout, small teeth, and short tooth rows instead indicate a skull adapted for feeding on small, soft prey. In these features, it is the pliosaur that approaches closest to the distantly-related piscivorous polycotylids, having convergently evolved these traits more than 10 million years apart.[1]
Category:Animals
Category:Creatures
Category:Reptiles
Category:Prehistoric reptile genera
Category:Plesiosaurs
Category:Pliosaurids
Category:Early Cretaceous plesiosaurs
Category:Fossil taxa described in 2017