Pronunciation: TER-mih-no-nah-TAY-tor
Meaning: Last Swimmer
Author/s: Sato (2003)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Saskatchewan, Canada
Discovery Chart Position: #
Terminonatator ponteixensis
For an aquatic reptile that sounds an awful lot like Terminator, Terminonatator ("last swimmer") was a bit of a lightweight.
It grew to an average length of seven meters, which is pathetic for a plesiosaur, but it had all the moves to ensure it lived well into the Late Cretaceous period. There's a lot to be said for a pure fish diet.
Found high in the Bearpaw Formation of Saskatchewan and the only undisputed one of its kind from Canada, Terminonatator is known from a skull and an incomplete skeleton that sports some interesting features. Bone fusion suggests it was a young adult, and it may have been significantly longer when fully grown, especially if its neck accounted for 30% of its total body length like fellow elasmosaurid, Elasmosaurus. Unusually for elasmosaurids, its thigh bone was longer than its upper arm, and its snout was fairly short. Its holotype right thigh looks like it may have been broken at some point, but it had completely healed before death. Impressions of part of the brain and other cranial nervous tissue were found in the braincase.
Elasmosaurids, plesiosaurids and pliosaurids all belong to a group of sea-dwelling reptiles known collectively as Plesiosauria, but none of them are dinosaurs.
Found high in the Bearpaw Formation of Saskatchewan and the only undisputed one of its kind from Canada, Terminonatator is known from a skull and an incomplete skeleton that sports some interesting features. Bone fusion suggests it was a young adult, and it may have been significantly longer when fully grown, especially if its neck accounted for 30% of its total body length like fellow elasmosaurid, Elasmosaurus. Unusually for elasmosaurids, its thigh bone was longer than its upper arm, and its snout was fairly short. Its holotype right thigh looks like it may have been broken at some point, but it had completely healed before death. Impressions of part of the brain and other cranial nervous tissue were found in the braincase.
Elasmosaurids, plesiosaurids and pliosaurids all belong to a group of sea-dwelling reptiles known collectively as Plesiosauria, but none of them are dinosaurs.
