Hyphalosaurus Swimming Chinese Cretaceous Reptile Fossil

Description: Imagine being able to afford a swimming reptile from the Cretaceous. Until about four years ago these were available in prodigious numbers on the world market. The Chinese authorities since then have prohibited the export of almost all fossils. Accordingly, this is a good time to acquire one of these specimens before they become scarce, and much more expensive. This is a ventral side view of the specimen. The Hyphalosaurus will be shipped in the ornate cloth covered box it was sold in.

Hyphalosaurus lingyuanensis (more commonly called Sinohydrosaurus lingyuanensis) is a more recently discovered and described (Li Jianjun, 1999, Beijing Natural History Museum) marine lizard from the Famous dinosaur fossil beds of Liaoning Province, Peoples Republic of China. Believed to have descended from a land-dwelling progenitor, Sinohydrosaurus was a fresh water marine reptile. Sinohydrosaurus resembles the generally larger Keichousaurus that preceded it by 100 million years, and is definitely desirable as a vertebrate that swam alongside its genetic cousins, the dinosaurs.