Late Triassic- Late Cretaceo, 203.6–66 million years BP. A large fossilised vertebra from a plesiosaur in sandstone matrix. 4.1 kg, 27cm (10 1/2"). Cambridgeshire collection, UK. Plesiosaurs were among the first fossil animals to reach the general public's conscioness through the publication of two imaginatively illtrated books by Thomas Hawkins, a noted collector of fossils: Memoirs of Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri (1834) and The Book of the Great Sea-Dragons (1840"). ing the historical models of his times, Hawkins regarded plesiosaurs as monstro creations of Satan. [No Reserve]