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The fact that the osteology of the plesiosaur's neck makes it absolutely safe to say that the plesiosaur could not lift its head like a swan out of water as the Loch Ness monster does, the assumption that air-breathing animals would be easy to see whenever they appear at the surface to breathe, [145] the fact that the loch is too small and ...
Plesiosaurus was a moderately sized plesiosaur that grew to 2.87–3.5 m (9.4–11.5 ft) in length. [ 13 ] [ 14 ] There are approximately 40 cervical vertebrae (neck vertebrae), with different specimens preserving 38 to 42 cervical vertebrae. [ 15 ]
Plesiosauroidea (/ ˈ p l iː s i ə s ɔːr /; Greek: πλησιος plēsios 'near, close to' and σαυρος sauros 'lizard') is an extinct clade of carnivorous marine reptiles.They have the snake-like longest neck to body ratio of any reptile.
Elasmosauridae is an extinct family of plesiosaurs, often called elasmosaurs.They had the longest necks of the plesiosaurs and existed from the Hauterivian to the Maastrichtian stages of the Cretaceous, and represented one of the two groups of plesiosaurs present at the end of the Cretaceous alongside Polycotylidae.
Elasmosaurus differed from all other plesiosaurs by having 72 neck vertebrae; more may have been present but were later lost to erosion or after excavation. Only Albertonectes had more neck vertebrae, 76, and the two are the only plesiosaurs with a count higher than 70; more than 60 vertebrae is very derived (or "advanced") for plesiosaurs. [15 ...
Skull and neck bones of an elasmosaurid plesiosaur are described from the Cenomanian Hegushi Formation by Utsunomiya (2019), representing the oldest confirmed elasmosaurid in Japan and in East Asia. [175] Páramo Fonseca and others described the new genus and species Leivanectes bernardoi. [176]
Neck vertebrae. This genus of plesiosaur lived in North America, approximately 95 million years ago - this places it during the Cenomanian stage. Its closest relative is Elasmosaurus, and both belong to the family Elasmosauridae. There are six specimens of varying states of preservation on display at various museums in the United States.
Like all plesiosaurs, Polycotylus was a large marine reptile with a short tail, large flippers, and a broad body. It has a short neck and a long head, and was a medium-sized plesiosaur, with the type species (P. latipinnis) measuring 4.7–5.4 metres (15–18 ft) long. [4] [5] It has more neck vertebrae than other polycotylids, however.