Styxosaurus was a plesiosaur, a type of marine reptile. It was not a dinosaur, though it coexisted with many dinosaurs. Styxosaurus lived during the Late Cretaceous. The first Styxosaurus fossil was discovered in 1952.

Quick facts about Styxosaurus:

  • Existed from 89.3 million years ago to Maastrichtian Age
  • Lived in a marine environment
  • Was a carnivore
  • Reproduced by live birth
  • 8 different specimens have been found by paleontologists

All the Styxosaurus illustrations below were collected from the internet. Enjoy and explore:

Styxosaurus was described by the following scientific paper(s):
  • J. E. Martin and L. E. Kennedy. 1988. A plesiosaur with stomach contents from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) Pierre Shale of South Dakota: a prelimiinary report. Proceedings of the South Dakota Academy of Sciences 67:76-79
  • S. P. Welles and J. D. Bump. 1949. Alzadasaurus pembertoni, a new elasmosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of South Dakota. Journal of Paleontology 23(5):521-535
  • K. Carpenter. 1999. Revision of North American elasmosaurs from the Cretaceous of the Western Interior. Paludicola 2(2):148-173