Natural History - Fossil Plesiosaur Vertebrae
Jurassic-Cretaceous Period, 199-65 million years B.P. A pair of Plesiosaur sp. fossil marine dinosaur vertebrae in a matrix; contained within a plaster field jacket. See O’Keefe, F.R., The evolution of plesiosaur and pliosaur morphotypes in the Plesiosauria (Reptilia: Sauropterygia), 2002, Paleobiology, 28: 101-112. 4.8 kg, 36 cm (14 1/8 in.). Ex Cambridgeshire, UK, collection. Plesiosaurs were among the first fossil animals to reach the general public's consciousness through the publication of two imaginatively illustrated books by Thomas Hawkins, a noted collector of fossils: Memoirs of Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri (1834) and The Book of the Great Sea-Dragons (1840). Using the historical models of his times, Hawkins regarded plesiosaurs as monstrous creations of Satan. [No Reserve]