Kingdom Animalia Superorder †Sauropterygia Family †Leptocleididae Rank Species | Class Reptilia Clade †Leptocleidia Phylum Chordata Order Plesiosauria | |
 | ||
Genus †Nichollssaura
Druckenmiller & Russell, 2009 Similar Thililua, Edgarosaurus, Sthenarosaurus, Lusonectes, Brancasaurus | ||
Nichollssaura is an extinct genus of leptocleidid plesiosaur from the Early Cretaceous Boreal Sea of North America. The type species is N. borealis, found in the early Albian age Clearwater Formation near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. Nichollssaura fills an approximate 40-million-year gap in the fossil record of North American plesiosaurs.
The type specimen was discovered in one of Syncrude Canada Ltd.'s open-pit oilsand mines near Fort McMurray, Alberta, in 1994. The fossil is on display at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, missing only the left forelimb and scapula, lost when the beast was discovered accidentally by 100-ton electric shovel operators Greg Fisher and Lorne Cundal.
Etymology
The fossil, named after paleontological curator Dr. Betsy Nicholls, originally was named Nichollsia borealis but Nichollsia was already in use (preoccupied) by a genus of isopods. Thus, the original authors proposed Nichollssaura as a replacement generic name in 2009.