Walking with Dinosaurs: Placodus

Placodus gigas
Named by Louis Agassiz, 1833
Diet: Shellfish-eater (also crustaceans)
Type: Sauropterygian placodont
Size: 6.6 feet (2 meters) long and 200 lb
Region: Europe (Germany, Poland, and France)
Age: Mid Triassic (245 to 235 million BC; Anisian to Ladinian)
Enemies: Sharks; other marine reptiles such as ichthyosaurs.
Episode: Sea Monsters- Dangerous Seas (6th Most Dangerous Seas) (Only in the companion book, Sea Monsters: Prehistoric Predators of the Deep) (Described as an unidentified placodont)
Info: A member of the extinct group of shell-fish-eating marine reptiles called placodont that first arose in the Early-to-Mid Triassic, thrived into many forms (Some different species like Henodus have armored bodies and resemble turtles) until they died out 201.3 million years ago in the Triassic-Jurassic Mass Extinction event, Placodus swims through the waters of the ancient Tethys Sea that covers today's Europe during the Middle Triassic period, feeding on the shellfish, mollusks, and crustaceans in the seabed, using its flat, outward-pointing teeth to scrape them off and then crush them with its battery of equally large, back teeth. But this strange animal and its relatives were not fully adapted to an aquatic lifestyle, due to its relatively squat, thick body and its small hands and feet were unable to propel itself through the water, but would've enabled it to hover above the seabed where the food was plenty.

Note: As with the book, Walking with Dinosaurs: A Natural History, Sea Monsters does have a companion book that's based on it and does have a few background animals that were absent on screen. This is one of the Triassic creatures. Since it wasn't fully described, I based it and coloration dinoraul's. 

Requested by ninjakingofhearts

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