Pahasapasaurus haasi

Pahasapasaurus is an extinct genus of polycotylid plesiosaurs from Late Cretaceous rocks of the United States. Distinctive features of the taxon include elongate epipodial bones and the nature of the palate bones. The genus contains two species; type species, Pahasapasaurus haasi, was named in 2007 based on remains from the late Cenomanian-aged Greenhorn Limestone of South Dakota, In 2025, a second species was named, Pahasapasaurus gillettei, based on a complete skull and partial skeleton from the early Turonian-aged Tropic Shale of Utah.

Pahasapasaurus haasi

Connor Ashbridge · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
PahasapasaurusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Plesiosauria
Life habit
aquatic, depth=surfacePBDB, for Plesiosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Plesiosauria
Environment
marinePBDB, for Plesiosauria

Time the record covers

At most 6.6 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 100.5 Mya and 93.9 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 1 occurrenceLate Cretaceous — about 1 of 1 occurrenceLate Cretaceous101–100 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences100–100 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences100–100 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences100–100 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences99–99 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences99–99 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences99–99 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences98–98 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences98–98 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences98–98 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences98–97 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences97–97 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences97–97 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences97–97 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences97–96 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences96–96 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences96–96 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences96–96 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences95–95 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences95–95 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences95–95 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences95–94 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences94–94 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences94–94 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences94–94 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences101 Mya93.4 Mya

1 occurrence of Pahasapasaurus haasi on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

1 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Greenhorn Limestone — 44.65°N, 103.58°W

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The named rock units Pahasapasaurus haasi has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Pahasapasaurus haasi and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Pahasapasaurus haasi and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

8 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Pahasapasaurus haasi, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Pahasapasaurus haasi

Credit
Connor Ashbridge
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Pahasapasaurus haasi was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itPahasapasaurus through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Schumacher 2007