#morturneria
Art by: Joschua Knüppe
Name:Morturneria seymourensis
Name Meaning: In honor of Mort D. Turner and the original proposed name of Turneria
First Described: 1994
Described By: Chatterjee and Creisler
Classification: Chordata, Tetrapoda, Reptilia, Sauropterygia, Plesiosauria, Elasmosauridae
Morturneria lived during the Late Cretaceous, and was discovered in Antarctica. What’s really fascinating is that Morturneria was a filter feeding plesiosaur, using its mouth as a sieve to indulge in marine invertebrates. The filter feeding strategy may have evolved in order to avoid direct competition with its other marine reptiles. Morturneria was once thought to be a juvenile Aristonectes, but paleontologists saw differences in non-ontological characteristics in Morturneria, thus distinguished it from Aristonectes. Fun fact, Morturneria was originally named Turneria, but the name was already taken by a genus of ant.
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