Pontosaurus
Encyclopedia
Pontosaurus is a now extinct genus
of pythonomorph
from the Late Cretaceous
period. It was originally named Hydrosaurus, but that name was preoccupied by an agamid lizard, so it was renamed.
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of pythonomorph
Pythonomorpha
Pythonomorpha was originally proposed by paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope as a reptilian order comprising snakes and mosasaurs. Cope wrote, "In the mosasauroids, we almost realize the fictions of snake-like dragons and sea-serpents, in which men have been ever prone to indulge...
from the Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous period is divided in the geologic timescale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous series...
period. It was originally named Hydrosaurus, but that name was preoccupied by an agamid lizard, so it was renamed.