Fossils of unexplored marine lizards species from Jurassic era discovered in Germany

BERLIN: European scientists, while studying the fossils of a marine lizard, found back in 1978 in the city of Holzmaden in southern Germany, discovered that it belongs to a new, previously unexplored species of plesiosaurs. This was reported on August 4 in an article in the scientific journal PeerJ.

“We present the first detailed osteological description of the species, rethinking some osteological features… and evaluating its taxonomic significance and phylogenetic relationship. We show that this species of plesiosaur has an unusual combination of features, the appearance of which is not significantly affected by ontogenetic development”, the text of the scientific article said.

New plesiosaur from Germany

I’m happy to announce that our paper on Plesionectes longicollum, a new plesiosaur from the Lower Jurassic Posidonia Shale of Holzmaden, has just been released in PeerJ. 1/5#Science #Palaeontology #Germany https://t.co/NeyMjvrIA0 pic.twitter.com/yUnTAuncOp

— Sven Sachs (@dinosven) August 4, 2025

It is noted that earlier studies of this species were brief and incomplete, as a result of which no differences were found with the already discovered species of these marine lizards. The study said that the studied specimen, 3.2 m long, is the oldest representative of plesiosaurs from this region of Europe.

“[This species] is the oldest known specimen of a plesiosaur from the Holzmaden area, expanding our understanding of plesiosaur diversity, but also contributing to broader knowledge about the biodiversity present in the Posidonium shale, which is still not fully known”, the study concluded.

On July 26, scientists in the United States discovered a new species of dinosaur, Enigmacursor, the size of a Labrador. The dinosaur was 64 cm tall and 180 cm long. A representative of this species will be exhibited at the Natural History Museum in London for the first time since 2014. (ANI/ Izvestia)