Indicopleustes

Indicopleustes is a genus of extinct marine reptiles belonging to the order Plesiosauria. These long-necked marine lizards lived during the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 85 to 70 million years ago. The name Indicopleustes is derived from Greek, meaning "India traveler," referencing the discovery of its fossils in India.

The fossils of Indicopleustes were first described by the paleontologist Alfred Sherwood Romer in 1966. These remains indicate that Indicopleustes was a relatively large plesiosaur, with estimates suggesting a length of up to 10 meters. Like other plesiosaurs, it possessed a long neck, a broad body, and four powerful flippers adapted for swimming. Its diet likely consisted of fish and other marine organisms.

Indicopleustes is known primarily from fragmentary remains, including vertebrae and limb bones, found in deposits of the Narmada River basin in India. The discovery of Indicopleustes is significant as it provides insights into the diversity of marine reptile life in the Indian Ocean region during the Cretaceous. Its presence further supports the idea of widespread marine reptile populations across the ancient Tethys Sea. The exact phylogenetic relationships of Indicopleustes within Plesiosauria are still under investigation due to the limited fossil material available.