Placodus

Placodus Temporal range: Triassic PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
An artist's illustration of Placodontia gigas
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
clade:	Placodontiformes
Superorder:	†Sauropterygia
Order:	†Placodontia
Family:	†Placodontidae Cope, 1871
Genus:	†Placodus Agassiz, 1833
Referred species
†Placodus gigas (Agassiz, 1833) †Placodus inexpectatus (Jiang et al., 2008)

Placodus, meaning flat toothed, was the largest of the placodonts, an extinct group of marine reptiles related to turtles. It lived from 245-235 MYA in the Middle Triassic.

Size

Weighing about 500 pounds and measuring 12 feet long, Placodus was double the size of the nearest competitor in size for the plcodonts Paraplacodus.

Diet

Like all of the placodonts, Placodus was a shellfish eater.

In popular culture

• Placodus appeared in PBS The Dinosaurs! in the episode The Monsters Emerge.

Gallery