The skull of Brachauchenius lucasi Williston 1903 A photographic atlas of  FHSM VP-321   Copyright © 2002-2008 by Mike Everhart Page created 11/30/2002; revised 08/`0/2008

The only pliosaur recognized from Kansas at this time is Brachauchenius lucasi Williston 1903. A few fragmentary specimens suggest other species may be present. In Kansas, these short-necked pliosaurs are relatively rare in the Greenhorn Limestone and Carlile Shale, but are represented by two excellent specimens, the largest of which is on exhibit at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History.  This specimen was found on June 5, 1950 by Robert and Frank Jennrich while hunting sharks teeth in the Fairport Chalk of Russell County. It was collected by G. F. Sternberg in October, 1950,, with the help of the Jennrich brothers.  The lower jaw is 68 inches (170 cm) long.

See these other webpages: Pliosaurs and Polycotylids  and  Kronosaurus for more information.

Somewhere in the Western Interior Sea, a giant pliosaur (Brachauchenius lucasi) is about to make lunch out of a small turtle similar to Desmatochelys.  Brachauchenius was one of the last of the pliosaurs and made it's final appearance in Kansas during the deposition of the Fairport Chalk Member (lower Turonian) of the Carlile Shale. Varner painting courtesy of the Museum of Northern Arizona.

LEFT: Brachauchenius lucasi Williston is currently the only genus of pliosaurs known from Kansas. The holotype (USNM 4989) was collected from the "Benton Formation" in Ottawa County, Kansas, by Charles H. Sternberg in the spring of 1884 while working for O.C. Marsh (Everhart, 2007), and described by S.W. Williston in 1903. The skull was orignally mounted as discovere,  upside-down, with 37 vertebrae. Skull length is 90 cm (Williston, 1907).   Click here for Williston's drawing of the reconstruction skull of the holotype specimen. From the notes C. H. Sternberg sent to O.C. Marsh, "It is well preserved as far as it goes but only 12+ feet are preserved. The under jaws are 49 in. long. The spread of them at the distal end [is] 14 inches. Most of the cervical vertebrae are present." and "Under jaw fifty inches, nineteen inches between branches, nearly perfect cervicals present, good, [limbs] gone, few dorsals." The specimen and the slab that contained it weighted 1370 pounds when shipped to Marsh.

LEFT: A second specimen (USNM 2361, LEFT) was collected from the Eagle Ford Formation, on Bouldin Creek near Austin, Texas, and described by Williston in 1907. Skull length is 80 cm (Williston, 1907).   SYSTEMATIC PALEONTOLOGY Order Plesiosauria, de Blainville 1835 Superfamily Plesiosauroidea, Welles 1943 Family Brachaucheniidae Williston 1925 Genus Brachauchenius lucasi Williston 1903

The skull of a third specimen (FHSM VP 321, shown below) is much larger, more complete, and somewhat better preserved than either of the two earlier specimens. It was collected by George Sternberg in October, 1950, from the Fairport Chalk Member of the Carlile Shale (Middle Turonian) near the town of Fairport in northwest Russell County, Kansas.

The skull of VP-321 is on exhibit in the Sternberg Museum of Natural History at Fort Hays State University.  A cast of the skull is also on display at the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History, Lawrence, Kansas. This skull is about five feet (152 cm) in length along the mid-line, and must have come from a large bodied animal that is estimated to have been at least 7 m (22 ft) long. Williston (1907) and Carpenter (1996) agree that Brachauchenius is closely related to the Jurassic pliosaur, Liopleurodon ferox.

Click on the pictures below to see details of skull of FHSM VP-321:

The figure at LEFT is from a 1994 draft of Carpenter (1996) and is copyright © by Kenneth Carpenter; used with permission of Kenneth Carpenter. CLICK TO ENLARGE. Key to bones of the skull and lower jaw of Brachauchenius lucasi Williston: d - dentary; ep - epipterygoid; fr - frontal; ju - jugal; mx maxilla; o - orbit; p - pineal foramen; pa - parietal; pal - palatine; pf - prefrontal; pm - premaxilla; pt - pterygoid; en - external nares; q - quadrate; qpt - quadrate ramus of pterygoid; sa - surangular; sq -squamosal; tf - temporal fenestra

LEFT: The right lower jaw in medial view, anterior to the left. The right dentary was lying across and on top of the skull when discovered and is not included in the exhibit mounting.

LEFT: Fragments of teeth collected in association with VP-321. Many of the teeth were found loose, scattered around the skull and lower jaws.

LEFT: A partial skull of a Brachauchenius (UNSM 50136) specimen from an unknown locality in the collection of the University of Nebraska. The specimen is somewhat larger then FHSM VP-321, but similar in preservation to FHSM VP-321. (Schumacher, 2008) RIGHT: A portion of the skull and a jaw with teeth of another Brachauchenius lucasi specimen (UNSM 112437) that was discovered in the Graneros Shale during the construction of the Glen Elder Dam in Mitchell County. Possibly the oldest known specimen of this genus/species. Specimen is in the collection of the University of Nebraska State Museum.

References:

Carpenter, K. 1996. A review of the short-necked plesiosaurs from the Cretaceous of the Western Interior, North America. Nues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen, (Stuttgart), 201(2):259-287.

Everhart, M. J. 2007. Historical note on the 1884 discovery of Brachauchenius lucasi (Plesiosauria; Pliosauridae) in Ottawa County, Kansas. Kansas Academy of Science, Transactions 110(3-4):255-258.

Schumacher, B. A. 2008. On a pliosaur skull (Plesiosauria) from the Upper Cretaceous of the North American Western Interior. Kansas Academy of Science, Abstracts of the 140th Annual Meeting, Transactions 111(1/2):186.

Schumacher, B. A. and M. J. Everhart. 2005. A stratigraphic and taxonomic review of plesiosaurs from the old “Fort Benton Group” of central Kansas: A new assessment of old records. Paludicola 5(2): 33-54.

Schwimmer, D. R., J. D. Stewart, and G. D. Williams. 1997. Scavenging by sharks of the genus Squalicorax in the late Cretaceous of North America. PALAIOS, 12:71-83.

Williston, S. W. 1903. North American plesiosaurs, Field Columbian Museum, Pub. 73, Geological Series, 2(1):1-79, 29 plates.

Williston, S. W. 1907. The skull of Brachauchenius, with special observations on the relationships of the plesiosaurs. United States National Museum Proceedings 32:477-489. pls. 34-37.