Nichollssaura

Nichollssaura Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 110 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Nichollssaura at the Royal Tyrrell Museum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Superorder:	†Sauropterygia
Order:	†Plesiosauria
Clade:	†Leptocleidia
Family:	†Leptocleididae
Genus:	†Nichollssaura Druckenmiller & Russell, 2009
Species:	† N. borealis
Binomial name
Nichollssaura borealis (Druckenmiller & Russell, 2008 [originally Nichollsia, preoccupied)
Synonyms
Nichollsia borealis Druckenmiller & Russell, 2008

Nichollssaura is an extinct genus of leptocleidid plesiosaur from the Early Cretaceous Boreal Sea of North America. The type species is N. borealis, found in the early Albian age Clearwater Formation near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. Nichollssaura fills an approximate 40-million-year gap in the fossil record of North American plesiosaurs.

Two Nichollssaura swimming in the Boreal Sea.

The type specimen was discovered in one of Syncrude Canada Ltd.'s open-pit oilsand mines near Fort McMurray, Alberta, in 1994. The fossil is on display at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, missing only the left forelimb and scapula, lost when the beast was discovered accidentally by 100-ton electric shovel operators Greg Fisher and Lorne Cundal.

Etymology

The fossil, named after paleontological curator Dr. Betsy Nicholls, originally was named Nichollsia borealis but Nichollsia was already in use (preoccupied) by a genus of isopods. Thus, the original authors proposed Nichollssaura as a replacement generic name in 2009.

See also

• List of plesiosaur genera
• Timeline of plesiosaur research

External links

• http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080326-ancient-reptile.html
• http://palaeoblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/betsys-plesiosaur-nichollsia-borealis.html
• http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/2008/03/details_on_nichollsia_borealis.php