Plesiosauria
E674176
Plesiosauria is an extinct group of large marine reptiles characterized by broad bodies, flippers, and typically long necks that thrived in the Mesozoic seas.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Plesiosauria canonical | 2 |
| Plesiosaurus | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7577340 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Plesiosauria Context triple: [Diapsida, includesTaxon, Plesiosauria]
-
A.
Ichthyosauria
Ichthyosauria is an extinct group of marine reptiles that resembled dolphins and thrived in the world’s oceans during the Mesozoic Era.
-
B.
Osteostraci
Osteostraci is an extinct group of armored, jawless vertebrates known from the Silurian and Devonian periods, notable for their bony head shields and importance in early vertebrate evolution.
-
C.
Champsosaurus
Champsosaurus was a long-snouted, semi-aquatic reptile from the Late Cretaceous and early Paleogene that resembled a modern gharial and belonged to the extinct group Choristodera.
-
D.
Crocodylomorpha
Crocodylomorpha is a diverse clade of archosaurian reptiles that includes modern crocodiles and their extinct relatives, ranging from small terrestrial forms to large semi-aquatic predators.
-
E.
Crocodyliformes
Crocodyliformes is a diverse group of archosaurian reptiles that includes modern crocodiles, alligators, and their extinct relatives, known from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic fossil record.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Plesiosauria Target entity description: Plesiosauria is an extinct group of large marine reptiles characterized by broad bodies, flippers, and typically long necks that thrived in the Mesozoic seas.
-
A.
Ichthyosauria
Ichthyosauria is an extinct group of marine reptiles that resembled dolphins and thrived in the world’s oceans during the Mesozoic Era.
-
B.
Osteostraci
Osteostraci is an extinct group of armored, jawless vertebrates known from the Silurian and Devonian periods, notable for their bony head shields and importance in early vertebrate evolution.
-
C.
Champsosaurus
Champsosaurus was a long-snouted, semi-aquatic reptile from the Late Cretaceous and early Paleogene that resembled a modern gharial and belonged to the extinct group Choristodera.
-
D.
Crocodylomorpha
Crocodylomorpha is a diverse clade of archosaurian reptiles that includes modern crocodiles and their extinct relatives, ranging from small terrestrial forms to large semi-aquatic predators.
-
E.
Crocodyliformes
Crocodyliformes is a diverse group of archosaurian reptiles that includes modern crocodiles, alligators, and their extinct relatives, known from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic fossil record.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
clade
ⓘ
extinct marine reptile group ⓘ sauropterygian ⓘ |
| bodyPlanVariation |
long-necked small-headed forms
ⓘ
short-necked large-headed forms ⓘ |
| characteristic |
broad body
ⓘ
four large flippers ⓘ often long neck ⓘ relatively small head in many forms ⓘ short tail ⓘ |
| class | Reptilia ⓘ |
| containsSubgroup |
Plesiosauroidea
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Pliosauroidea ⓘ |
| convergentWith | sea turtles in locomotion ⓘ |
| diet | carnivorous ⓘ |
| discoveredBy | early 19th-century paleontologists ⓘ |
| distinguishedFrom |
ichthyosaurs
ⓘ
mosasaurs ⓘ |
| environment | marine ⓘ |
| extinctionEvent | Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| feedingBehavior | marine predator ⓘ |
| firstAppearance | Late Triassic ⓘ |
| fossilEvidence | known from abundant skeletal remains ⓘ |
| fossilsFoundIn | marine sedimentary rocks ⓘ |
| geographicDistribution |
Africa
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Asia NERFINISHED ⓘ Australia NERFINISHED ⓘ Europe NERFINISHED ⓘ North America NERFINISHED ⓘ South America NERFINISHED ⓘ global oceans ⓘ |
| kingdom | Animalia ⓘ |
| lastAppearance | end-Cretaceous mass extinction ⓘ |
| livedIn | Mesozoic seas ⓘ |
| locomotion | aquatic ⓘ |
| neckVertebraeCount | often more than 30 cervical vertebrae in long-necked forms ⓘ |
| notableGenus |
Cryptoclidus
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Elasmosaurus NERFINISHED ⓘ Kronosaurus NERFINISHED ⓘ Liopleurodon NERFINISHED ⓘ Plesiosaurus NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| phylum | Chordata ⓘ |
| reproduction |
live birth in water
ⓘ
viviparous ⓘ |
| superorder | Sauropterygia NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| swimmingStyle | underwater flight with flippers ⓘ |
| taxonRank | order ⓘ |
| temporalRange |
Cretaceous
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Jurassic ⓘ Late Triassic ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Plesiosauria Description of subject: Plesiosauria is an extinct group of large marine reptiles characterized by broad bodies, flippers, and typically long necks that thrived in the Mesozoic seas.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Plesiosaurus