Herbstosaurus Herbstosaurus Herbstosaurus is the name given to a genus of pterosaur that lived during the Jurassic period, in what is now Argentina. In 1969 Argentine paleobotanist Rafael Herbst in the province Neuquén at Picun Leufú dug up a piece of sandstone holding a number of disarticulated bones of a small reptile. At the time it was assumed the rock dated from the Middle Jurassic (Callovian), about 163 million years ago. In 1974/1975 paleontologist Rodolfo Magín Casamiquela named the find as a new genus. The type species is "Herbstosaurus pigmaeus". The genus name honours Herbst and connects his name to Greek
South Polar region of the Cretaceous notably the rhomaleosaurids and "Leptocleidus", which died out in the Early Cretaceous, indicating the polar freshwater systems may have been a refuge for the pliosaurs of the Cretaceous. In contrast to modern marine reptiles, these South Polar plesiosaurs probably had a better tolerance of colder waters. Early to Middle Cretaceous marine reptile remains of South Australia include five families of plesiosaurs–Cryptoclididae, Elasmosauridae, Polycotylidae, Rhomaleosauridae, and Pliosauridae–and the ichthyosaur family Ophthalmosauridae. The discovery of several juvenile plesiosaur remains suggest they used the nutrient-rich waters of the coast as sheltered calving grounds, the cold deterring predators such as sharks. Most of the