c. 120 million years ago, Western Australia.

On a shallow seabed, a Leptocleidus prepares to attack the shark Squatina. Another shark, a small Carcharias,  swims in the background. All these animals are based on fossil remains recovered from the Birdrong Sandstone near Kalbarri, Western Australia. The 3 m long pliosaur Leptocleidus clemai, when described in 1997, was the first Western Australian Mesozoic reptile to receive a scientific name. Other species of Leptocleidus are known from elsewhere in Australia as well as South Africa and the UK. These chunky marine reptiles probably lived much as seals do today.

Surprisingly, while Leptocleidus (like all other pliosaurs) is long extinct, both the sharks depicted in this painting are alive and well today as the angelshark (Squatina sp.) and the grey nurse or sand-tiger shark (Carcharias taurus). If you ever see grey nurse sharks cruising in a public aquarium, remind yourself that you’re looking at an animal that has survived unchanged since the time of the dinosaurs (and pliosaurs).

The original painting is in the collection of Mr John Clema who partly sponsored the fieldwork that obtained the pliosaur remains and thus had the animal named after him.

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Art and text © Brian Choo 2004