Scanisaurus
Scanisaurus is a dubious genus of plesiosaur that lived in what is now Sweden and Russia during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous period. The name Scanisaurus means "Skåne lizard", Skåne being the southernmost province of Sweden, where a majority of the fossils referred to the genus have been recovered. The genus contains one species, S. nazarowi, described in 1911 by Nikolay Bogolyubov as a species of Cimoliasaurus based on a single vertebral centrum discovered near Orenburg, Russia.
| Scanisaurus Temporal range: Campanian | |
|---|---|
| Neck (top) and lower back (bottom) vertebrae referred to Scanisaurus sp., excavated in the Kristianstad Basin | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | †Sauropterygia |
| Order: | †Plesiosauria |
| Family: | †Elasmosauridae |
| Genus: | †Scanisaurus Persson, 1959 |
| Species: | †S. nazarowi |
| Binomial name | |
| †Scanisaurus nazarowi (Bogolyubov, 1911) | |
| Synonyms | |
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S. nazarowi was separated into its own genus by Per-Ove Persson in 1959 after several differences were observed between the Russian centra and new fossils from Skåne and the type species of Cimoliasaurus. Due to the limited type material and the lack of diagnostic features in the Swedish fossils confidently separating Scanisaurus from other Late Cretaceous elasmosaurids, the genus is of questionable validity, though it continues to be used in practice.
Scanisaurus fossils have mainly been found in the Kristianstad Basin in northwestern Skåne, where they represent the most common plesiosaur fossils. Scanisaurus shared its environment with a diverse marine fauna, including many other marine reptiles. It would have been a middle trophic-level predator, about 4–5 meters (13–16 ft) in length, and would have been able to feed both in open water and on the sea floor, likely feeding mainly on small prey such as small fish or belemnites.