Sachs, S., Schubert, S., Kear, B.P. (2014) Note on a new plesiosaur (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) skeleton from the upper Pliensbachian (Lower Jurassic) of Bielefeld, northwest Germany. Berichte Naturwissenschaftlicher Verein für Bielefeld und Umgegend 52: 26-35.
—This note briefly introduces a new plesiosaur specimen from the upper Pliensbachian (Lower Jurassic) of Bielefeld-Jöllenbeck (North Rhine-Westphalia, NW Germany). The skeleton comprises a partial skull, sections of the vertebral column, ribs and components of the pectoral girdle and limbs. It belonged to an immature individual of 2-3 m length. Important diagnostic features include a prominent notch in the caudal border of the mandibular fossa glenoidalis, craniad cervical centra that are higher than long, a pair of foramina subcentralia on the cervicals separated by a broad ventral keel, and a dorsal process on the scapula that bears a gently convex cranial margin, but no pronounced medial thickening. The Bielefeld specimen is one of the most complete plesiosaurs currently known from the Pliensbachian and differs from the coeval European taxa Westphaliasaurus and Cryonectes, but shows some similarity to unpublished material from the Pliensbachian of England. The Bielefeld plesiosaur indicates that a substantial diversity of taxa was present in European marine systems during the Pliensbachian stage.
