Prosantosaurus

Six skeletons of the species have been discovered within lime and marlstone sediments of the Upper Prosanto Formation in the Ducanfurgga southeast of Davos, Canton Grisons,[1] at about 2700 m above sea level.[2] They have been dated to the very early Ladinian of the Triassic period.[1] Today, the Ducan mountains are located about 100 km (62 mi) northeast of Mount San Giorgio, a UNESCO world heritage site where other pachypleurosauria were found.[1] In the past, the two locations have been up to 200 km (120 mi) apart from each other.[1] The skeletons are accessible in the palaeontological institute of the University of Zurich.[1]

Prosantosaurus scheffoldi were 50 cm (20 in) long lizard-like vertebrates inhabiting the coastal areas of the Tethys Ocean in the Mesozoic era.[3] The Tethys Ocean covered large parts of the present-day Switzerland.[2] Their teeth are less pointed and also broader at their basis from comparable pachypleurosaurs.[1] If its teeth broke off, they regrew.[2] The regrowing teeth were observed for the first time on a European pachypleurosaurus, the other discovery having occurred on a pachypleuosaurus in China.[2] Prosantosaurus were carnivores and it is assumed they fed on small fishes and crustaceans which it swallowed whole after hunting them down.[2] Other bones that differ from other known pachypleurosaurus are those at the calvaria and the rostrum.[3] Research comparing the new species to other European pachypleurosaurs such as Anarosaurus or Neusticosaurus has been conducted by a team of palaeontologists at the University of Zurich.[1]