The cervical vertebrae in this specimen are exposed in side view (while the head, body, and flippers are exposed in ventral view) so the neck curves upwards. Plesiosaur unearthed in 1995 found to have been long-necked marine reptile Elasmosaurus was named by paleontologist E. D. Cope in 1868 from a fossil was found in Wyoming, USA. Theyre possibly preferentially targeting the same region of the neck, Dr. Mujal said, far enough away from the head to make it hard for the animal to defend itself., Tanystropheus is the only marine reptile known to suffer such unceremonious decapitation. [31], In the same 1869 publication wherein he named E. platyurus and E.orientalis, Cope assigned an additional species, E.constrictus,[8] based on a partial centrum from a neck vertebra found in the Turonian-aged clay deposits at Steyning, Sussex, in the United Kingdom. She found that in order to make their bodies more hydrodynamic, the long-necked plesiosaurs kept steady, straight necks while swimming, bending them only while they were moving at slow speeds or when floating. Plesiosaurs may have evolved from the Nothosaurs or Pistosaurus, a mid-Triassic reptile. [15][2], Elasmosaurus had four sacral vertebrae (the fused vertebrae that form the sacrum connected to the pelvis), a number typical of elasmosaurids. [2][3][16][17][18] In 2018, Davidson and Everhart documented the events leading up to the disappearance of these fossils, and suggested that a photo and drawing of Waterhouse's workshop from 1869 appear to show concretions on the floor that may have been the unprepared girdles of Elasmosaurus. [33], Carpenter's 1997 phylogenetic analysis of plesiosaurs challenged the traditional subdivision of plesiosaurs based on neck length. Consider supporting ScienceX's mission by getting a premium account. Cryptoclidus was 13 feet (4 metres) long with curved, interlocking teeth and large flippers. "Plesiosaurs with long necks (approximately 2-7 m) would have less movement of the neck compared to short-necked ones (1-2 m). Your email address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the email. More recently, some researchers have offered the opinion that the animals used their necks to root around for food on the sandy bottom or to find suitable-sized gastroliths (stomach stones). Williston created a revised taxonomy of plesiosaurs in 1925. However, we know from stomach contents that long-necked plesiosaurs had a wide range of diets. When dinosaurs ruled the land, plesiosaurs ruled the oceans. F. Robin O'Keefe, Hallie P. Street, Jean Pierre Cavigelli, John J. Socha and R. Dennis O'Keefe A Plesiosaur Containing an Ichthyosaur Embryo as Stomach Contents from the Sundance Formation of the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming. Discover world-changing science. In the long run, the risk of having a long neck was worth it for this animal.. Get the latest science news in your RSS reader with ScienceDaily's hourly updated newsfeeds, covering hundreds of topics: Keep up to date with the latest news from ScienceDaily via social networks: Tell us what you think of ScienceDaily -- we welcome both positive and negative comments. The facets where the neck ribs articulated with the neck vertebrae were placed on the lower sides of the centra, but were only placed higher in the last three vertebrae, reaching around the middle of the sides. To this day, questions abound about the snake-like appearance of their foreparts. Davidson and Everhart concluded that the girdle fossils were most likely destroyed in Hawkins' workshop. Your feedback is important to us. [96], Elasmosaurus is known from the Sharon Springs Member of the Campanian-age Upper Cretaceous Pierre Shale formation of western Kansas, which dates to about 80.5million years ago. This obvious anatomical error was a source of great embarrassment for Cope, and he was quick to react by recalling as many copies of the article as he could, a mistake that Marsh never let him forget. He divided plesiosaurs into two superfamilies, the Plesiosauroidea and Pliosauroidea, based on neck length, head size, ischium length, and the slenderness of the humerus and femur (the propodialia). Combined, the specimen consists of neck, back and tail vertebrae, phalanges, a tooth, limb elements, 110 gastroliths, and unidentifiable fragments. The neck of Elasmosaurus is estimated at 7.1 meters (23ft) in length;[22] thus, Elasmosaurus and its relative Albertonectes were some of the longest-necked animals ever to have lived, with the largest number of neck vertebrae of any known vertebrate animals. Also, Cope initially thought it consisted of two specimens of different animals in an 1868 letter to LeConte, Cope had referred to the supposed "smaller specimen" as Discosaurus carinatus. [87], Cope, in 1869, compared the build and habits of Elasmosaurus with those of a snake. I hope you enjoyed this one, and feel free to comment. It was discovered that the 'flat tail' was its neck. [36], Cope discovered another elasmosaurid skeleton in 1876. [24], Like other elasmosaurids, Elasmosaurus would have had a slender, triangular skull. The vertebrae of most plesiosaurs are big and bulky, with interlocking projections that keep the neck held fairly straight. This site uses cookies to assist with navigation, analyse your use of our services, collect data for ads personalisation and provide content from third parties. Some Plesiosaurs have been found with small stones in their stomachs which may have been used to help grind up their food, or as ballast, to help them dive. Have any problems using the site? [58] Another was E.haasti, originally Mauisaurus haasti, named by James Hector in 1874 based on remains found in New Zealand. [70], In 1940 Theodore White published a hypothesis on the interrelationships between different plesiosaurian families. (?) Plesiosaurs were more than necks, of course. Riley Black, who formerly wrote under the name Brian Switek, is the author ofSkeleton KeysandMy Beloved Brontosaurus. This would have included plesiosaurs, whose huge bodies, not to mention the added turbulence cause by their pectoral flippers, would have set off all manner of lateral line alarms. Pernille V. Troelsen, a PhD student. ", Ms Troelsen believes that these and future results will provide deeper insights into this mysterious group of marine reptiles: "We hope that we can shed some light on the biomechanical implications of having such a long neck and learn more about the lifestyle and evolutionary history of plesiosaurs. This is because any flexibility in the neck would cause plesiosaurs to tumble while moving quickly, as viscous drag would try to push the neck to either side of the animal. The teeth interlocked, and their tooth crowns were slender and rounded in cross-section. The snout was rounded and almost formed a semi-circle when viewed from above, and the premaxillae (which form the front of the upper jaw) bore a low keel at the midline. It had a large body and 4 flippers for limbs. It lends its name to the order Plesiosauria, of which it is an early, but fairly typical member. It had a small head with sharp teeth and most likely ate small bony fish such as belemnites which were similar to squid, lepidotes and ammonites molluscs. This sensitivity would determine the distance at which they could detect approaching displacement waves and would, hence, account for the super-long neck of elasmosaurs like Thalassomedon and Elasmosaurus. An integrated approach to understanding the role of the long neck in plesiosaurs. Plesiosaur - New World Encyclopedia gigas, named in 1885 from two dorsals; one was found in Prussia, the other in Scania. Getting any insight into how these extreme structures functioned with potential weakness and strengths is very important, Dr. Spiekman said. [9][30] In an 1870 reply to Leidy, Cope himself stated that the generic placement of E.orientalis was in doubt, and that he had illustrated it with a short neck due to believing this was the condition of Cimoliasaurus. This extremely long neck provided some advantages, but it might have also been an obstacle for efficient swimming. The replica at the Fort Wallace Museum measures about 12.8 meters (42ft) in length. More Often Than You Think, Newly Discovered Jurassic Fossils in Texas, 'We're All Asgardians': New Clues About the Origin of Complex Life, These Long-Necked Reptiles Were Decapitated by Their Predators, Fossil Evidence Confirms, Plesiosaur Fossils Found in the Sahara Suggest They Weren't Just Marine Animals, Shark Diversity Unaffected When the Dinosaurs Were Wiped Out, Study Finds, New Study Reveals How Reptiles Divided Up the Spoils in Ancient Seas. The Plesiosaur Site Even though there hasnt been a Plesiosaur Renaissance to match the dinosaur equivalent of the late 20th century, expert anatomists have nevertheless given plesiosaurs stiffer, straight necks that operated in coordination with the rest of the body rather than as independent, snaky appendages that could dart one way while the body was moving another. [79] Carpenter's 1999 analysis suggested that Elasmosaurus was more basal (i.e. [35] In 1995 Nathalie Bardet and Pascal Godefroit also recognized it as an elasmosaurid, albeit indeterminate. Macroplata had long, toothed jaws and a long neck which had around 29 vertebrae. Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at, How Sea Dragons Carved Up the Prehistoric Oceans, Some Dinosaurs Regurgitated Pellets Just like Birds, Saber-Toothed Protomammal was a Quick Healer. It is uncertain how many teeth Elasmosaurus had, due to the fragmentary state of the fossils. Getting into tight spots. By laying immobile on the sea floor or floating at the surface and using their protruding necks to hunt, they may have been able to sneak up on their prey more easily, or simply been more effective at snapping up fast-moving prey. No, L.F., Taylor, M.A., and Gmez-Prez, M. 2017. Explore our digital archive back to 1845, including articles by more than 150 Nobel Prize winners. So there you have it folks. [61], In 1949 Welles named a new species of Elasmosaurus, E.morgani. 29, No. The content is provided for information purposes only. Plesiosaur - Wikipedia This is where my PhD is important as it will help answer the question of the hydrodynamic implications of the long necked plesiosaurs." Did the vertebrae shape support some kind of odd muscle configuration? A version of this article appears in print on, Fossils Show How Long-Necked Reptiles Lost Their Heads, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/19/science/fossil-neck-decapitated.html. To make things worse, the extra long neck of elasmosaurs would also make them slower to turn due to inertia and make them less stable overall. [44][46] Williston mentioned three additional Elasmosaurus species, which he would figure and describe at a later date. Why did elasmosaurids have such a long neck? - Plesiosaur Directory Thanks for reading Scientific American. [16] While he initially assigned it in 1890 to a new species of Cimoliasaurus, C.snowii,[45] he subsequently recognized the elasmosaurid nature of its humerus and coracoids. Some of them had big heads and short necks. But when they did swim, how did they do it? They had a broad body from which their long neck extended. [22] Initially, in his 1869 description of Elasmosaurus, Cope estimated the length of the animal by summing up vertebral lengths and estimations of missing parts, resulting in a total length of 13.1 meters (43ft); he believed that the living animal would have been slightly larger due to cartilage present between the vertebral bodies, and was estimated at roughly 13.7 meters (45ft). [16] In 1943 both specimens were assigned to the new genus Thalassiosaurus by Welles,[38] who then assigned the latter to the new genus and species Alzadasaurus kansasensis in 1952. With all these challenges, one must wonder what would make such a long neck worth it? [64] The content of Elasmosauridae also received greater scrutiny. She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. Kronosaurus measured 43 feet (13 metres) in length. A ridge ran along the top of these vertebrae, and the lower sides of the centra were rounded, and bore pairs of nutritive foramina, separated by low ridges. [16] In 1943 Welles moved E. Remains of this animal have been found in Japan and Kansas, USA. The generic name Elasmosaurus means "thin-plate reptile", in reference to the "plate" bones of the sternal and pelvic regions, and the specific name platyurus means "flat-tailed", in reference to the compressed "tail" (actually the neck) and laminae of the vertebrae there. It gave the plesiosaurs a virtually unlimited food supply and also killed off the slowest and weakest members of any given school of fish, thus ensuring the passing on of the healthiest genetics. They included: Macroplata is estimated to have been up to 15 feet (4.5 metres) in length. This theory is actually accurate (Occams razor, anyone? [28] In 1952 Welles considered the species a nomen dubium, given how fragmentary it was. Like modern day sea turtles, these sea reptiles probably laid their eggs in sand on the beach. This would effectively allow the plesiosaur to follow the school along and basically graze like a cow, swimming with the fish, clamping down on a victim at the rear of the school, and then dropping back a few feet to gulp it down before repeating the scenario over and over. This kind of body plan is seen in many living and extinct reptiles from crocodiles to sharks, and even other extinct marine reptiles like mosasaurs. To test the hydrodynamic effects of different neck bending degrees and locations, Ms Troelsen created a digital 3D model based on a simplified plesiosaur body shape and uses computational fluid dynamics to visualise and determine how bending the neck affects the flow of water around the animal. If more remains showed E.orientalis to have had a long neck like Elasmosaurus, he stated the image may instead represent Cimoliasaurus better. ScienceDaily, 5 July 2017. Medical research advances and health news, The latest engineering, electronics and technology advances, The most comprehensive sci-tech news coverage on the web. ", Provided by A humerus of an unidentified subadult elasmosaurid was found with bite marks matching the teeth of the shark Cretoxyrhina,[95] while a crushed Woolungasaurus skull has tooth-marks matched to the pliosaur Kronosaurus. Maybe these plesiosaurs had a weird soft-tissue organ inside of their neck that did not preserve, but left imprints behind? [92], In 1869 Cope noted that scales and teeth of six species of fish had been discovered directly beneath the vertebrae of the Elasmosaurus holotype, and theorized that these fish would have had formed the diet of the animal. Click here to sign in with Several possible theories suggest that plesiosaurs may have developed long necks to extend their feeding range. The upper processes of the shoulder blades were very broad, and the "necks" of the shoulder blades were long. This would make them a lot like todays long-flippered migrating whales, such as humpbacks. Was there any advantage to it? The result was a self-sustaining ecosystem, geared toward genetic perfection. In addition to their usually keen eyesight, fish have a lateral line a series of sense organs running along their bodies that allows them to sense movement and vibrations in the surrounding water. There are even a few plesiosaurs have necks that defy any known analogs. Pernille V. Troelsen, a PhD student at Liverpool John Moores University, UK is simulating plesiosaur locomotion with a 3D model to understand how they could swim with such long necks. plesiosaur, (clade Plesiosauria), any of a group of long-necked marine reptiles found as fossils from the late Triassic Period into the late Cretaceous Period (215 million to 66 million years ago). The pectoral girdle had a long bar at the middle, a supposedly advanced feature thought to be absent from juvenile plesiosaurs. Plesiosaurnecks just seemed far too long to be plausible, and this may have been a factor in why 19th century paleontologist E.D. Nevertheless, Nagesan and colleagues found that Nichollssaura had the most flexibility in the side-to-side range of motion. Keeping the head and body so far apart would allow plesiosaurs to sneak up on shoals of fish or squid without alerting them to their presence. [15][2] In 2013 an incomplete neck vertebra centrum of the holotype that had been mentioned by Cope but thought to have been lost was rediscovered in storage by Sachs, and the neck vertebra count was revised from 71 to 72. Woolungosaurus was 26-33 feet (8-10 metres) long with a very long neck. The smaller Tanystropheus may have been attacked by a smaller marine reptile or a large fish. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no Both paleontologists and the public have wondered since their initial discovery why the different plesiosaur species, and elasmosaurs in particular, had such long necks. Plesiosaurs and their absurdly long necks | Earth Archives Most popular of all, of course, is prey capture above or below the air-water interface, but the relative stiffness of the plesiosaur neck would have prevented these animals from keeping their bodies still while lashing their necks around to nab fish and squid. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. Continue reading with a Scientific American subscription. One of the potential problems of a long neck in plesiosaurs, as envisaged by Henry de la Beche . New study shows how long-necked plesiosaurs swam - ZME Science "Plesiosaurs with long necks (approximately 2-7 m) would have less movement of the neck compared to short-necked ones (1-2 m). Also, the weight of the neck, the limited musculature, and the limited movement between the vertebrae would have prevented Elasmosaurus from raising its head and neck very high. They explained that elements missing from the holotype may have been lost to weathering or simply not collected, and that parts may have been lost or damaged during transportation or preparation. [35] In 1962 Welles further subdivided elasmosaurids based on whether they possessed pelvic bars formed from the fusion of the ischia, with Elasmosaurus and Brancasaurus being united in the subfamily Elasmosaurinae by their sharing of completely closed pelvic bars. The type remains were discovered by him in the same 1874 expedition with Mudge. Along with its relative Albertonectes, it was one of the longest-necked animals to have lived, with the second largest number of neck vertebrae known, 72, 4 less than Albertonectes. In the course of that research, Dr. Spiekman studied a pair of specimens from both species, each composed solely of a head and neck. Paired with the anatomy of the skull and teeth, No and colleagues suggest, these findings might mean that long-necked plesiosaurs operated as strange, sieve-feeding reptiles. [3][9][11][12][13][14], Because of Cope's reputation as a brilliant paleontologist, it has been questioned why he would make such an obvious anatomical error. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. Like many adaptations in nature, the body parts of animals serve a number of different purposes. Godzilla Interview the Kaiju-Crazy Sci-fi Freak, Amazon Bestselling Author & Book Of The Year Winner, https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/475941432/author-max-hawthorne-solves-a-65-million-year-old-sea-monster-mystery?fbclid=IwAR2vYrpjnLA-lsMc_KCw2Of9dJc3KAdmHAOqncVP5QzV9qHIXJAq9q9Vm7Q. His diagnosis of the Elasmosauridae also noted the moderate length of the skull (i.e., a mesocephalic skull); the neck ribs having one or two heads; the scapula and coracoid contacting at the midline; the blunted rear outer angle of the coracoid; and the pair of openings (fenestrae) in the scapulacoracoid complex being separated by a narrower bar of bone compared to pliosaurids. Kronosaurus was heavily built, more streamlined, faster and more ferocious than other plesiosaurs. Elasmosaurus ( / lzmsrs, - mo -/; [1]) is a genus of plesiosaur that lived in North America during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, about 80.5 million years ago. He also named E.orskensis, based on "very large" neck and tail vertebra remains from Konopljanka, Orenburg; and E.serdobensis, based on a single neck vertebra from Maloje Serdoba.
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