The pliosaurs
Short-necked marine reptiles with two-metre skulls become the largest predators in the sea.
- When
- Known to
- ± 5 million years
- Era
- Jurassic, Mesozoic
Macropredatory pliosaurids rise near the Early–Middle Jurassic transition, trading the long neck of their plesiosaur relatives for a massive crocodile-like head on a short, powerful body. The largest, known from partial skulls found in England, had bites estimated among the most powerful of any animal. They occupy the role that killer whales and large sharks fill today.