Stratum.black
Platecarpus — Platecarpus
Platecarpus — Creator: Dmitry Bogdanov, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0

Marine reptile

Platecarpus

Mosasaur

Platecarpus is the most common mosasaur of the Niobrara Chalk, a mid-sized animal of 4–6 m. Its teeth and vertebrae are the usual Kansas mosasaur material in trade; Moroccan 'Platecarpus' teeth are generally Halisaurus or other genera. Its teeth are slender and slightly recurved with a faint carina.

PhylumChordata
ClassReptilia
OrderSquamata
FamilyMosasauridae
GroupMarine reptile
Rank (PBDB)genus· Paleobiology Database
AuthorCope 1869· Paleobiology Database
Classification (PBDB)Chordata › Reptilia › Squamata › Mosasauridae· Paleobiology Database
Range (PBDB)100–66 Ma· Paleobiology Database
PBDB occurrences60· Paleobiology Database

Photographs

Platecarpus — Platecarpus Cope, 1869 (NHMUK PV R 3040)
Platecarpus Cope, 1869 (NHMUK PV R 3040) — © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum (London) Data Portal, CC BY 4.0
Platecarpus — Platecarpus Cope, 1869 (NHMUK PV R 3040 1)
Platecarpus Cope, 1869 (NHMUK PV R 3040 1) — © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum (London) Data Portal, CC BY 4.0
Platecarpus — Platecarpus ictericus Cope, 1871 (NHMUK PV R 4001)
Platecarpus ictericus Cope, 1871 (NHMUK PV R 4001) — © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum (London) Data Portal, CC BY 4.0

Age

Formations

Elsewhere

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Platecarpus" (Taxon). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19. https://stratum.black/study/taxa/platecarpus. Accessed 2026-09-20.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-platecarpus,
  title        = {Platecarpus},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/taxa/platecarpus}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Taxon article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, pbdb, wikidata, commons, nhm. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
}

Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.