Life in the Weddellian Province, while it bears some similarities to the animals and plants found elsewhere, seems to have developed along a strange path all of its own. Unlike Laramidia, the Weddellian Biota is separated from the rest of the Maastrichtian world not by insurmountable geographical barriers, but by climate - for the Weddellian Province lies near a region we may not often think of when we imagine the age of the dinosaurs: the Antarctic circle. It encompassed the southernmost tip of South America, what is now New Zealand, and the Antarctic continent itself (our knowledge of Australia during this time is unfortunately very lacking). In recent years, new discoveries have begun to allow us a glimpse into this weird and wonderful land that once existed at the bottom of the Maastrichtian world. This post will provide a general overview of Weddellian ecosystems and environments, and what we know about the remarkable animals of the far south of the Earth during the final millennia of the Cretaceous.

For most of human history, we have had a fascination with the sea, and mingled with that fascination - a deep seated fear and respect for its untamable power, which has manifested throughout the world in stories of gods and sea monsters. Among the most enduring of these is the idea of the sea serpent, no doubt an extension of our own long and complicated relationship with snakes. Sea serpents have permeated our imaginations, featuring everywhere from the tall tales of Victorian sailors to the legends of some of the most ancient civilizations on Earth. In some stories they are responsible for the creation of the world, in others for its destruction. Most supposed sightings of sea serpents throughout history are in actuality the result of exaggeration or misidentification of other objects. But far from being relegated to myth, sea serpents are very real, and they are among the most successful of all marine tetrapods, spanning between them nearly 100 million years of Earth’s history. Though they may be far from the monstrous, ship-sinking giants of myth, the vibrant reality of the sea serpent is every bit as fascinating and alluring as any legend.

Preface Thalattosaurs were an order of indeterminate diapsid reptiles known exclusively from the Triassic. These sea dwelling reptiles were divided into two superfamilies, Thalattosauroidea and Askeptosauroidea. The slender bodied, lizard-esque Askeptosauroids were long snouted coastal animals and the deeper bodied Thalattosauroids were better adapted to life in the water, even entirely lacking the potential limited …Continue readingThalattosauroid Skulls & Feeding Behavior: the Weird and the Weirder→

Disclaimer: Before I begin, I’d like to clarify certain things about this blog post. This post is not meant to chastise or call-out any specific artists or artworks, nor is meant to complain or to rant. The purpose of this post is to compile a sort of guide for paleoartists when they are reconstructing the …Continue readingReconstructing Marine Reptiles: a Guide to Soft Tissue→

The Cryptoclididae were a very widespread family of plesiosaurs, both temporally and geographically, stretching from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous and achieving a near global distribution. The most famous cryptoclidids were those found in the Oxford Clay of England, including Cryptoclidus itself. While many Cryptoclidids have received fairly extensive study, their actual ecology …Continue readingPolar Oddities and Bathyal Ghouls: The Unspoken Diversity of the Cryptoclidids→

An overzealous Nakonanectes bites off more than it can chew. Art by Tosha Hollmann By Tosha Hollmann, Christian Halliwell, and Elisandre Ardeo Among the very first fossils to have been scientifically studied and recognized as belonging to extinct animals are the enigmatic plesiosaurs, with Plesiosaurus itself having been described based on fossils found by Mary …Continue readingWhat Sea Dragons Ate: Plesiosaur Diets Revised→

While finishing up my blog post on Ellisdale, I came across an older paper by Eric Buffetaut describing cartilage regeneration in the tail of “Steneosaurus” bollensis (Buffetaut, 1985). I previously wrote on this subject, but that text desperately needed an update. Since then the taxonomy has significantly changed with Michela Johnson’s thesis and paper on …Continue readingTail regeneration in Macrospondylus bollensis or “Steneosaurus”→