Plesiosaur remains from the Jurassic-Cretaceous Purbeck Limestone Group of southern England

Plesiosaur fossils from the uppermost Tithonian (Upper Jurassic) to lower Valanginian (Lower Cretaceous) Purbeck Limestone Group of Dorset, England are important because they constitute a rare record from around the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary. Where diagnostic, the remains are referred to indeterminate plesiosauroids (Cryptocleidoidea) and represent relatively small animals including a previously undescribed juvenile individual. This observation accords with the lagoonal-lacustrine (with periodic marine influx) depositional setting of the Purbeck Limestone Group strata, a palaeoenvironment that is often associated with juvenile plesiosaur occurrences.