Pliosaur information
Why Pliosaur Energy chose its name, and what fossil evidence tells us about the remarkable marine reptiles that inspired it.
Our identity
Why Pliosaur Energy?
The Pliosaur Energy name reflects the company's connection with the marine environment and the qualities it seeks to bring to technology development: strength, movement, adaptability and purposeful engineering.
Because renewable-energy projects operate within shared marine and coastal environments, we believe our identity should be memorable and accessible to people of different ages and backgrounds.
The name also expresses a longer-term responsibility. Decisions made about energy, industry and the environment today will help shape the world inherited by future generations.
Pliosaurs provide a powerful connection with that message. They were highly adapted to the oceans of their time, yet they are now known only through the fossil record.
A memorable character
Curiosity, strength and connection to the ocean
A pliosaur is distinctive, recognisable and firmly associated with the marine environment.
The name gives Pliosaur Energy an identity that can support serious engineering and commercial work while retaining a sense of curiosity, optimism and discovery.
It also creates opportunities to engage younger audiences and introduce wider conversations about marine science, renewable energy and the future health of the oceans.
Prehistoric oceans
What was a pliosaur?
Pliosaurs were not dinosaurs. They were an extinct group of marine reptiles within the wider plesiosaur family.
Unlike the familiar long-necked plesiosaurs, many pliosaurs had relatively short necks, large heads, powerful jaws and robust teeth.
Their streamlined bodies were propelled through the water by four flipper-like limbs. Fossil evidence indicates that they were important predators within Jurassic and Cretaceous marine ecosystems.
Large species of Pliosaurus are estimated to have reached approximately 10 to 13 metres in length. Exact estimates remain uncertain because complete pliosaur skeletons are extremely rare.
A remarkable British fossil
Pliosaurus kevani
One of the best-known British pliosaur discoveries is the large skull of Pliosaurus kevani, found near Osmington Bay on the Dorset coast.
Pieces of the skull were collected over approximately eight years, principally by local collector Kevan Sheehan. The species was later named in recognition of his contribution.
The fossil is approximately 155 million years old and is one of the largest substantially complete pliosaur skulls yet discovered.
It is displayed in the Natural Dorset gallery at Dorset Museum & Art Gallery in Dorchester.
Marine predator
Adapted to hunt in prehistoric seas
Pliosaurs occupied the upper levels of many prehistoric marine food chains.
Their large skulls and robust teeth indicate that some species were capable of taking substantial prey, including fish and other marine reptiles.
Although pliosaurs clearly possessed powerful jaws, precise bite-force estimates vary and should not be treated as established measurements.
Scientific understanding continues to develop as new specimens are discovered and existing fossils are examined using modern scanning and modelling techniques.
Museum collections
Fossils and life reconstructions
Museum specimens allow researchers and the public to examine the anatomy, scale and evolutionary history of these extinct marine reptiles.
Mounted skeletons are assembled from fossil material, while life reconstructions combine anatomical evidence with scientific interpretation to illustrate how the animals may have appeared.
Further information
Explore the science
Scientific understanding of pliosaurs continues to change as new fossils are discovered and existing specimens are re-examined.