"These particulars, in which the bones of this animal differ from those of fishes, are sufficient to shew, that although the mode of its progressive motion has induced me to place it in that class, I by no means consider it as wholly a fish, when compared with other fishes, but rather view it in a similar light to those animals met with in New South Wales, which appear to be so many deviations from ordinary structure, for the purpose of making intermediate connecting links, to unite in the closest manner the classes of which the great chain of animated beings is composed."

"Its place in the chain of animal creation is clearly pointed out to be between the proteus and lizard, and will be sufficiently marked out by calling it Proteo-saurus."

"Half lizard, and half fish, the name Ichthyosauri expresses the words, but not the Idea which lurks within them. It is therefore only a conventional term, forced upon us by the rash attempt to ally Past and Present Races, living under two such alien Planets."

"Es rauscht in den Schachtelhalmen, Verdächtig leuchtet das Meer, Da schwimmt mit Thränen im Auge Ein Ichthyosaurus daher."

"There is no reason whatever to believe that the order of nature has any greater bias in favor of man than it had in favor of the icthyosaur [sic] or the pterodactyl."

"This sea-going reptile with terrestrial ancestors converged so strongly on fishes that it actually evolved a dorsal fin and tail in just the right place and with just the right hydrological design. These structures are all the more remarkable because they evolved from nothing—the ancestral terrestrial reptile had no hump on its back or blade on its tail to serve as a precursor."

"Leptopterygius, big as a city bus, was an insatiable ichthyosaur, anything captured by Leptopterygius Never was seen in the sea anymore."

"Kansas, par excellence, has been the great collecting ground of the world for these reptiles."

"The typical mosasaur was shaped like a moray or salt-water eel, with the addition of four broad paddles, built for steering rather than for rowing."

"Some mosasaurs may have been a belated ecological replacement of Triassic ichthyosaurs, but not of the Late Cretaceous thunniform ichthyosaurs. Triassic ichthyosaurs were ambush predators, and gave rise to pursuit predators at the beginning of the Jurassic, all long before mosasaurs. The vacated Triassic ichthyosaur ecological niche was partially filled by marine crocodiles and much later by aigialosaurs. Then mosasaurs came along and did the job of ambush predation better than the others put together and some may have filled a similar ecological niche to that of Triassic ichthyosaurs."

"Ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs had a much longer history than mosasaurs and appear to have been scaleless. It is possible that a smooth skin was much better adapted for a life in the ocean than was one with scales because it offered less resistance in the water, or because it provided fewer opportunities for the attachment of parasites. Mosasaurs, on the other hand, were covered with small scales, the shape and arrangement of which resembled those of modern monitor lizards."

"Since none of the creatures of the sea were taken on Noah's ark, there would be a strong possibility that some plesiosaurs and maybe even some ichthyosaurs survived the Flood. The violent and turbulent waters of the Flood would surely have killed and buried many of the sea creatures (over 90 percent of fossils found are of marine animals). However, if some had survived the Flood and lived on in the seas for years after, they could help account for many of the legends of sea monsters that have been gathered from all over the world. Remote as it may seem, there could even be the possibility that a few have survived till modern times. After all, it's much easier to believe that they could have survived for several thousand years rather than for nearly a hundred-million years."

"The first distinguishing feature of Dimorphodon [...] is the disproportionate magnitude of the head—the more strangely disproportionate, as it seems, in an animal of flight."

"[while Bowen fights a Plesiosaur] Servo: So that creature's probably endangered, right? Crow: Oh yeah, for sure. Last of its kind, a priceless treasure, his sweat cures cancer, blah blah blah. Kill it! Kill it!"

"Michael Cole: [on Brodus Clay's entrance] A funky start to the Survivor Series. John "Bradshaw" Layfield: "Funky"'s a kind word. This is what happens when you cross a plesiosaur with Adele. This is the offspring. Michael: What are you talking about? JBL: A plesiosaur, from the Cretaceous period. Michael: No, I mean Adele's a singer, not a dancer. JBL: Okay, Kirstie Alley."

"Dimorphodon's sharp teeth jutted directly upward from the lower jaw and directly downward from the upper. Therefore its strong bite must have been delivered by a quick, simple snap of uppers and lowers together."

"A snake drawn through the shell of a turtle"

"It cannot but be matter of regret, that so considerable a Rarity, the like whereof has not been observ'd before in this Island (to my knowledge) should be maim'd and imperfect, yet we may content our selves if enough be still visible to favour a Conjecture of what it has been."

"I am persuaded, it cannot be reckon'd Human, but seems to be a Crocodile or Porpoise."

"With the evidence of Peloneustes before us we now have an almost continuous chain connecting the genus Plesiosaurus with Pliosaurus, the course of evolution being directed towards a gradual increase in the size of the head, in the length of the mandibular symphysis, and the size and specialization of the teeth, accompanied by a shortening of the neck, which is accomplished by a reduction both in the number and length of the component vertebræ, and also by a tendency to a loose attachment between the centra, arches, and cervical ribs of the vertebræ, and a reduction in the relative length of the epipodial bones of the limbs. That Peloneustes philarchus is the direct ancestor of Pliosaurus is, however, improbable, seeing that the latter genus is already represented in the Oxford Clay. Finally, while Pliosaurus forms the culmination of the series just indicated, the genus Polyptychodon appears to have been the latest development of the series of which the middle term is represented by Cimoliosaurus."

"These unparalleled phenomena demand a Style and Title of their own. Throughout the Greek, and Latin, and all the derivative Languages living, float traditional notices of a supposed Chimaera, under the term Dragon. Backing this word through the more ancient Semitic Tongues, we come at last to its root in the most ancient of all, the blessed Hebrew. There, in the Inspired Annals of Earth, we read of the Gedolim Taninim, the Great Sea-Serpents, the frightful Dragons of Dead Times, the long-lost Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri, of which we treat."

"L’autre, c’est un serpent caché dans la carapace d’une tortue, le terrible ennemi du premier, le plesiosaurus!"

"That monster could have been no other than the Plesiosaurus, one of the most wonderful animals that has ever existed. Imagine a thing with the head of a lizard, the teeth of a crocodile, the neck of a swan, the trunk and tail of a quadruped, and the fins of a whale. Imagine a whale with its head and neck consisting of a serpent, with the strength of the former and the malignant fury of the latter, and then you will have the plesiosaurus. It was an aquatic animal, yet it had to remain near or on the surface of the water, while its long, serpent-like neck enabled it to reach its prey above or below with swift, far-reaching darts. Yet it had no armor, and could not have been at all a match for the ichthyosaurus."

"But it was different out upon the rose-tinted waters of the central lake. It boiled and heaved with strange life. Great slate-colored backs and high serrated dorsal fins shot up with a fringe of silver, and then rolled down into the depths again. The sand-banks far out were spotted with uncouth crawling forms, huge turtles, strange saurians, and one great flat creature like a writhing, palpitating mat of black greasy leather, which flopped its way slowly to the lake. Here and there high serpent heads projected out of the water, cutting swiftly through it with a little collar of foam in front, and a long swirling wake behind, rising and falling in graceful, swan-like undulations as they went. It was not until one of these creatures wriggled on to a sand-bank within a few hundred yards of us, and exposed a barrel-shaped body and huge flippers behind the long serpent neck, that Challenger, and Summerlee, who had joined us, broke out into their duet of wonder and admiration."Plesiosaurus! A fresh-water plesiosaurus!" cried Summerlee. "That I should have lived to see such a sight! We are blessed, my dear Challenger, above all zoologists since the world began!""

"During the Cretaceous Period many of the inland seas dried up, leaving the Plesiosaurs stranded without any fish. Just about that time Mother Nature scrapped the whole Age of Reptiles and called for a new deal. And you can see what she got. [Footnote: Here we see the working of another Law of Nature: No water, no fish.]"