Roger B J Benson

Thomas H. Rich, Patricia Vickers-Rich, Erich M G Fitzgerald

Academic paper

Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology

37

4

456-461

We report a large plesiosaurian tooth from the freshwater early�middle Aptian (Early Cretaceous) Eumeralla Formation of Victoria, Australia. This, combined with records of smaller plesiosaurian teeth with an alternative morphology, provides evidence for a multitaxic freshwater plesiosaurian assemblage. Dental and body size differences suggest ecological partitioning of sympatric freshwater plesiosaurians analogous to that in modern freshwater odontocete cetaceans. The evolutionarily plastic body plan of Plesiosauria may have facilitated niche differentiation and helped them to exclude ichthyosaurs from freshwater environments during the Mesozoic. However, confirmation of this hypothesis requires the discovery of more complete remains.

freshwater plesiosaurs, Plesiosauria, Cretaceous, Eumeralla Formation, Victoria.

English