Hi, welcome to Enchiridion.
Today, we are looking at the medium-sized,
voracious predator of the Jurassic Seas: Liopleurodon.
One of the famous and most interesting marine
reptiles known, Liopleurodon was famously
featured in the Walking with Dinosaurs television
show.
In the show, the supposedly 80-foot-long creature
dominated the Jurassic Seas.
Except that’s not true.
The Controversy of Liopleurodon lies in the
fact that previous fragmented fossil evidence
indicated that the creature could have been
over 80 feet long, making it the biggest flesh-eating
vertebrate known.
The truth is that Liopleurodon could only
reach up to 33 feet in length. Why did they
make this mistake, you may be asking? Because
they deduced Liopleurodon’s length from
its skull.
Normally, pliosaurs tend to have huge skulls
as compared to the rest of their bodies. Thus,
this was an inaccurate estimate.
Pliosaurs were a family of marine reptiles
known for their elongated heads, short necks,
and long flippers attached to a thick chassis.
Nonetheless, some isolated remains of Liopleurodon
indicate that they could reach up to almost
25 to 33 feet in length, as we previously
mentioned.
Liopleurodon’s body structure was of four
flippers that allowed it to paddle through
water effectively. The front paddles were
used to steer while the back ones functioned
like wings.
With a 4-foot-long skull taking up ⅕ of
the total body length and a pair of gigantic
jaws each packed with 4-inch long, sharp teeth,
Liopleurodon could have been one of the top
predators in the Jurassic Seas.
Its name means “smooth-sided teeth” and
was based on scanty fossil evidence and simply
three teeth. The almost 21-to-23-foot-long
beast could weigh around 1, 000 to 1, 700
kilograms or up to almost 2 tons and achieve
an extremely slow and surprising top speed
of 6 mph. In comparison, modern dolphins working
hard could reach up to 20 miles per hour.
Using our knowledge of the skin of animals
with similar anatomy and ecology, such as
dolphins or whales, Liopleurodon most probably
had very smooth skin.
Liopleurodon’s nostril arrangement has led
many scientists to believe that it could smell
acutely, taste water, and follow the blood.
In other words, it had a directional sense
of smell. This could be compared to modern
sharks’ blood sensing.
The very first Liopleurodon fossil was discovered
by Henri Émile Sauvage in 1873. What he uncovered
were three tooths each around 3 inches long.
Liopleurodon was found in a section of a rock
known as the Callovian Clay. Fossils have
also been found in Russia and France.
Liopleurodon lived in the late Jurassic Period,
around 160-150 million years ago (166-155
million years ago). By the start of the Cretaceous
period, 150 million years ago, Mosasaurus
came to dominate and threaten Liopleurodon
and other pliosaurs. Like whales, Liopleurodon
had to breathe air.
As a solitary ocean hunter, it preyed on giant
fish, squids, ichthyosaurs, and even other
plesiosaurs.
Liopleurodon surprised prey with a sudden
ambush attack that would catch them off guard.
Its propulsion form wasn’t the most efficient,
but gave it considerable acceleration needed
to kill its prey.
In popular culture, Liopleurodon famously
appeared in the 1999 television show Walking
with Dinosaurs, impressive, though, as we
discussed, inaccurate. It also appeared in
ARK: Survival Evolved and Jurassic World:
The Game, both of which you can play.
In summary, despite having notoriety for being
a huge hunter, Liopleurodon was in fact a
much more average and medium-sized predator.
It certainly serves as a classic example of
a pliosaur.
Thank you for watching, and if you enjoyed
this video and want me to make more short
Documentaries like this, comment below what
you want to see next.
This is Enchiridion. See you next time.
