Mesosaurus

Mesosaurus tenuidens · Mesosaurus was a small extinct aquatic reptile that lived about 275 million years ago in what is now southern Africa and South America.

It lived about 283.3 to 274.4 million years ago.

Mesosaurus
Photo: Smokeybjb, CC BY-SA 3.0
Mesosaurus
Photo: Nobu Tamura (http://spinops.blogspot.com), CC BY 2.5
Mesosaurus
Photo: Dmitry Bogdanov, CC BY-SA 3.0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumChordata
ClassReptilia
OrderMesosauria
FamilyMesosauridae
GenusMesosaurus
SpeciesMesosaurus tenuidens

Where its fossils were found

South Africa and Namibia in southern Africa, and Brazil and Uruguay in South America.

Fun facts

  • The first known Mesosaurus fossil was found in a hut in South Africa, where it was being used as a pot lid.
  • Mesosaurus nostrils sat on top of its head, so it could breathe with just the upper side of its head above water, like a modern crocodile.
  • Mesosaurus fossils found on both sides of the Atlantic helped support the theory of continental drift.
  • Scientists think Mesosaurus ate tiny crustaceans, and the remains of these have been found in its fossilised droppings.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).