HardLiopleurodon
Liopleurodon ferox
LIE-oh-PLOOR-oh-don· “smooth-sided tooth”
🌊 Marine reptile🕰️ Jurassic🥩 carnivore🦴 Pliosauridae
6.5 m
Length
2 m
Height
4 t
Weight
A powerful short-necked pliosaur that hunted the Jurassic seas of Europe with a massive head and dagger-like teeth. Wildly oversized in documentaries, it was still a formidable ~6–7 m apex predator. A marine reptile, not a dinosaur.
When
Middle–Late Jurassic, ~166–155 million years ago
Found in
United Kingdom
Discovered
Henri Émile Sauvage, 1873
Did you know?
- A short-necked pliosaur and apex predator of Jurassic European seas.
- Famously exaggerated to 25 m on TV — really about 6–7 m long.
- May have tracked prey underwater using a keen sense of smell.
Artwork: El fosilmaníaco, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.