Simosaurus gaillardoti was a marine reptile that lived in shallow tropical seas covering much of what is now Europe and the Middle East, about 242-235 million years ago.
It was part of the nothosaurian lineage, a group of semi-aquatic sauropterygians that were widespread throughout the Triassic seas before the rise of the more fully marine plesiosaurs.
Growing up to around 4m long (~13′), Simosaurus had a flat short-snouted skull and rather thick blunted teeth, along with jaw musculature adapted for a quick strong snapping bite — suggesting it specialized in crushing tough prey like shelled cephalopods and hard-scaled fish.
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