Aphrosaurus

Aphrosaurus is an extinct genus of plesiosaur from the Maastrichtian. The type species is Aphrosaurus furlongi (LACM 2748), named by Welles in 1943. The holotype specimen was discovered in the Moreno Formation in Fresno County, California in 1939 by rancher Frank C. Piava. A second specimen - LACM 2832 - was also found in the same formation and initially diagnosed as a juvenile of the same species, but has since been removed from the genus.

== Discovery == In 1943, Samuel Welles described Aphrosaurus furlongi along with several other plesiosaurs from the same fossil assemblage in Fresno County, California. Aphrosaurus was found below a different juvenile species, Morenosaurus stocki, within the Tierra Loma Member of the Panoche Hills. The Moreno Formation dates back to the early Maastrichtian, and is composed of depositional layers of turbidite, sandstone, and shale. It is part of the larger Chico Formation, which contacts the Panoche Formation and, during the Cretaceous, composed a sea shelf along the coast of California and the Pacific Ocean.