Plesiosaurus 50p

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Design details: Near the lizard........

The flipper fossil illustrated on the Plesiosaurus coin is the forelimb from a complete skeleton discovered by Mary Anning in 1823. This famous fossil is known as Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus, and forms part of the Natural History Museum’s collection. I think Plesiosaurus is an absolutely beautiful creature, with that long neck and four powerful flippers. It must have been a wonder to watch swimming through the Jurassic oceans. Plesiosaurus is often reconstructed with a vertical, fish-like tail, but it is more likely that it had a horizontal, whale-like tail instead. The crinoid, to the left of the Plesiosaurus, is Pentacrinites and to the right is the fern Dicranopteris.”