Marine reptile
[1] The earliest marine reptile was Mesosaurus (not to be confused with Mosasaurus), which arose in the Permian period of the Paleozoic era.
[2] During the Mesozoic era, many groups of reptiles became adapted to life in the seas, including such familiar clades as the ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs (these two orders were once thought united in the group "Enaliosauria",[3] a classification now cladistically obsolete), mosasaurs, nothosaurs, placodonts, sea turtles, thalattosaurs and thalattosuchians.
Most marine reptile groups became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period, but some still existed during the Cenozoic, most importantly the sea turtles.
Other Cenozoic marine reptiles included the bothremydids,[4] palaeophiid snakes, a few choristoderes such as Simoedosaurus and dyrosaurid crocodylomorphs.
Various types of marine gavialid crocodilians remained widespread as recently as the Late Miocene.
• Saltwater crocodile (top left)
• Sea turtle (top right)
• Marine iguana (bottom left)
• Sea snake (bottom right)
