After making a splash in early 2025 with the identification of its 183-million-year-old fossilized skin, the plesiosaur fossil MH7 (Holzmaden specimen), uncovered in Germany, is making headlines again.
A new study published in PeerJ Life and Environment looks at how this plesiosaur fossil may offer clues to how this species evolved and expanded around Europe 180 million years ago.
“The Holzmaden specimen gives us an unprecedented look at Plesiopterys wildi in a more mature stage of development, allowing us to refine our understanding of this species and its place in plesiosaur evolution,” Miguel Marx, lead study author from Lund University, said in a press release. “It also suggests that distinct plesiosaur communities may have evolved in different regions of the European seas during the Early Jurassic.”
