Serpentisuchops pfisterae is a rather unusual polycotylid with both long face (a feature of all polycotylid) but with relatively long neck (a feature shared with its elasmosaur brethren as well as the more primitive cryptoclidid and plesiosaurid), while most polycotylid has short necks. It lived 69-70 million years ago in the famous Western Interior Seaway, sharing the waters in what will become Pierre Shale Formation with several awesome (and sometimes terrifying) denizens of Cretaceous shallow seas. Living in Cretaceous seas, the famous Mosasaurus shared the waters with Serpentisuchops, but the 7-metre-long S. pfisterae need not to worry about both M. conodon and M. missouriensis, both being medium-sized mosasaurs, not the 15m behemoth like M. hoffmanni. No, instead it would have to worry about the 14m-long Tylosaurus proriger as the top mosasaur back then. Not to mention the demon fish Xiphactinus possessing danger for the newborns. WIS truly was hell's aquarium.
The weird long-necked long-faced polycotylid Serpentisuchops pfisterae.
#serpentisuchops #plesiosaur #paleoart #paleontology
