Meyerasaurus

Meyerasaurus is an extinct genus of rhomaleosaurid plesiosaur known from the Early Jurassic of Holzmaden, Baden-Württemberg in southwestern Germany.

==Discovery== Between Holzmaden and Zell unter Aichelberg, a chalkstone and shale quarry was operated. It intersected an extremely hard forty centimetres thick layer of Stinkstein chalk, which was deemed worthless. Even ichthyosaur "mummies" present in the layer were discarded as it was not cost-effective to prepare them. The rocks were dumped in a ravine. In May 1906, the famous fossil trader Bernhard Hauff discovered in the dump broken-up boulders containing an uniquely complete and thus very rare plesiosaur skeleton. Up till that time, German plesiosaurs finds had tended to be much more fragmentary than British discoveries. Over nine months he recovered 2.5 tonnes of chalkstone, exposing and preparing the bones. Together with a second plesiosaurian skeleton, discovered nearby in shale in November 1906, much later referred to Seeleyosaurus, it was offered for sale. Financial support by D. Landauer and Victor Fraas allowed the Stuttgarter Königliche Naturalienkabinett to obtain both specimens.