Editing Marine reptile (section)

{{Short description|Aquatically secondarily adapted reptiles}}
[[Image:Modern-marine-reptiles-001.jpg|thumb|Extant Cenozoic marine reptiles:<br />
{{*}} [[Saltwater crocodile]] (top left)<br />
{{*}} [[Sea turtle]] (top right)<br />
{{*}} [[Marine iguana]] (bottom left)<br />
{{*}} [[Sea snake]] (bottom right)]]

'''Marine reptiles''' are [[reptile]]s which have become secondarily [[adaptation|adapted]] for an [[aquatic animal|aquatic]] or [[semiaquatic]] life in a [[marine ecosystem|marine]] [[Natural environment|environment]]. Only about 100 of the 12,000 [[Extant taxon|extant]] reptile species and subspecies are classed as marine reptiles, including [[marine iguana]]s, [[sea snake]]s, [[sea turtle]]s and [[saltwater crocodile]]s.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Rasmussen |first1=Arne Redsted |last2=Murphy |first2=John C. |last3=Ompi |first3=Medy |last4=Gibbons |first4=J. Whitfield |last5=Uetz |first5=Peter |date=2011-11-08 |title=Marine Reptiles |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=6 |issue=11 |pages=e27373 |bibcode=2011PLoSO...627373R |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0027373 |pmc=3210815 |pmid=22087300 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

The earliest marine reptile was ''[[Mesosaurus]]'' (not to be confused with ''[[Mosasaurus]]''), which arose in the [[Permian]] period of the [[Paleozoic]] era.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Piñeiro |first1=Graciela |last2=Ferigolo |first2=Jorge |last3=Ramos |first3=Alejandro |last4=Laurin |first4=Michel |title=Cranial morphology of the Early Permian mesosaurid Mesosaurus tenuidens and the evolution of the lower temporal fenestration reassessed |journal=Comptes Rendus Palevol |date=1 July 2012 |volume=11 |issue=5 |pages=379–391 |doi=10.1016/j.crpv.2012.02.001 |bibcode=2012CRPal..11..379P }}</ref> During the [[Mesozoic]] era, many groups of reptiles became adapted to life in the seas, including such familiar clades as the [[ichthyosaur]]s, [[plesiosaur]]s (these two orders were once thought united in the group "Enaliosauria",<ref>Williston SW (1914) [https://books.google.com/books?id=uB7YkzwYaswC&dq=enaliosauria+ichthyosauria&pg=PA75 ''Water Reptiles of the Past and Present''] University of Chicago Press (reprint 2002). {{ISBN|1-4021-4677-9}}</ref> a classification now cladistically obsolete), [[mosasaur]]s, [[nothosaur]]s, [[placodont]]s, [[sea turtle]]s, [[thalattosaur]]s and [[thalattosuchia]]ns. Most marine reptile groups became extinct at the end of the [[Cretaceous]] period, but some still existed during the Cenozoic, most importantly the [[sea turtles]]. Other Cenozoic marine reptiles included the [[Bothremydidae|bothremydids]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Carvalho |first1=Anny Rafaela De Araújo |last2=Ghilardi |first2=Aline Marcele |last3=Barreto |first3=Alcina Magnólia Franca |title=A new side-neck turtle (Pelomedusoides: Bothremydidae) from the Early Paleocene (Danian) Maria Farinha Formation, Paraíba Basin, Brazil |journal=Zootaxa |date=21 June 2016 |volume=4126 |issue=4 |pages=491–513 |doi=10.11646/zootaxa.4126.4.3 |pmid=27395602 }}</ref> [[Palaeophiidae|palaeophiid]] snakes, a few [[Choristodera|choristodere]]s such as ''[[Simoedosaurus]]'' and [[dyrosaurid]] crocodylomorphs. Various types of marine [[gavialid]] crocodilians remained widespread as recently as the Late Miocene.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Langston |first1=Wann |last2=Gasparini |first2=Z. |chapter=Crocodilians, Gryposuchus, and the South American gavials |pages=113–154 |editor1-last=Kay |editor1-first=Richard F |editor2-last=Madden |editor2-first=Richard H |editor3-last=Cifelli |editor3-first=Richard L |editor4-last=Flynn |editor4-first=John J. |title=Vertebrate paleontology in the neotropics: the Miocene fauna of La Venta, Colombia |date=1997 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press |isbn=978-1-56098-418-4 }}</ref>

Some marine reptiles, such as ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, [[Metriorhynchidae|metriorhynchid]] thalattosuchians, and mosasaurs became so well adapted to a marine lifestyle that they were incapable of venturing onto land and gave birth in the water. Others, such as sea turtles and saltwater crocodiles, return to shore to lay their eggs. Some marine reptiles also occasionally rest and [[wikt:bask|bask]] on land.