pelagosaur

English

Etymology

From Latin pelagus from Ancient Greek πελαγικός (pelagikós), from πέλαγος (pélagos, “sea”) +‎ -saur.

Noun

pelagosaur (plural pelagosaurs)

1. Any of the extinct crocodile-like animals of genus †Pelagosaurus which lived during the Jurassic period.
   • 1896, Richard Lydekker, Reptiles and fishes, page 32:

     In still older formations, such as the Lower Oolites and Lias, there were, however, many long-snouted crocodiles, such as the steneosaurs (Steneosaurus) and pelagosaurs (Pelagosaurus), in which the socket of the eye is divided from the lower temporal fossa by a bony bar, as shown in the figure on p. 13.

   • 1915, Josiah Gilbert Holland, Richard Watson Gilder, The Century: A Popular Quarterly - Volume 89, page 312:

     SINCE, aflap o'er some dim Jurassic prairie, Pterodactyl seized on pelagosaur; In heraldry-book and bestiary Have been limned the beasts of the days of yore.

   • 1969, Rodolfo Riascos Llinás, Neurobiology of Cerebellar Evolution and Development, page 431:

     The order Crocodilia comprised, besides terrestrial forms, extinct marine crocodiles such as the genus mystriosaur and the pelagosaur—both lower jurassic forms (one hundred and fifty million years ago).

   • 1973, Carl Gans, Thomas Sturges Parsons, Biology of the Reptilia, page 278:

     A complication not found in eusuchians occurs in some marine mesosuchians (i.e., mystriosaurs, pelagosaurs), in which the eustachian system may have been connected with the nasal passages, possibly a hydrostatic adaptation for protection of the auditory organs in diving animals (Antunes, 1967b).

Anagrams

• paralogues, rapalogues