Article: A revision of Australia’s Jurassic plesiosaurs

Jurassic plesiosaur fossils are exceptionally rare in Australia and currently restricted to a single fragmentary skeleton (Sinemurian, Razorback beds, Queensland), some articulated vertebrae (lower Toarcian, Evergreen Formation, Queensland) and a few isolated bones and teeth (Aalenian–Bajocian, Champion Bay Group, Western Australia). These remains are attributable to either indeterminate plesiosaurs, or more specifically to pliosauroids and plesiosauroids, and occur within a variety of fluviatile-lacustrine to coastal marine depositional settings. Although hampered by their incompleteness, Australia’s Jurassic plesiosaurs are significant because they include some of the most ancient occurrences from nonmarine strata, and Gondwanan marine reptiles of a similar age are otherwise very sparsely known.