![]() This is quite unlike most reconstructions which portray them with snake-like flexible necks that dart through the water, something that populated early art. The vertebrae of most plesiosaurs are big and bulky, with interlocking projections that keep the neck held fairly straight. ![]() The consensus is now that many long-necked plesiosaurs actually had quite stiff necks with limited motion. However, this view became complicated as people studied plesiosaur necks more closely. For a long time, paleontologists assumed that plesiosaurs used their necks like the heads of snakes, snapping up prey with quick, rapid strikes of the head and neck. Scientists have debated the function of plesiosaur necks for decades, alongside a myriad of other quirks in their anatomy. This body form seems to work very well given its prevalence, so what would cause a group of aquatic reptiles to evolve a body that is the exact opposite? 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. The short neck of his backwards elasmosaur would reduce drag as the animal propels itself through the water, while the long tail could be used for propulsion via undulations. Albertonectes in particular has 72 vertebrae in its 7-meter long neck, making it the owner of the most neck vertebrae of any known animal.īut why have such a tremendously long neck? In Cope’s defense, his original version of Elamosaurus with a short neck and long tail seems to be the more plausible animal. Other closely related elasmosaurs, like Styxosaurus from the Dakotas and Albertonectes from Alberta had similarly dramatic neck lengths. ![]() Cope’s Elasmosaurus belongs to this latter group, and when reconstructed correctly had a neck almost 7 meters (22 feet) long. Pliosauromorphs are characterized by their short necks and big heads, while plesiosauromorphs are famous for their tiny heads and incredibly long necks. Plesiosaurs, known scientifically as the Plesiosauria, are separated into two morphological groups based on body form, the pliosauromorphs and the plesiosauromorphs. Their iconic nature has even netted them roles in popular media, including Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth and Cooper and Schoedsack’s King Kong. Plesiosaurs came in all shapes and sizes, ranging from as big as a whale to smaller than your average porpoise, and had equally diverse diets. They lived in a wide range of environments from near-shore estuaries to the open ocean, and some even lived in freshwater habitats. ![]() Despite this early hiccup, the animal that Cope described has remained interesting to scientists.Įlasmosaurus was a plesiosaur, part of an extraordinarily diverse and successful group of marine reptiles that ruled the Earth’s oceans for 160 million years. 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. This is because Cope’s original reconstruction of Elasmosaurus was restored backward, with the head on the end of what was actually its tail. ![]() Cope went on to contact Turner and request his help in order to obtain the rest of the specimen, and in March 1868 Cope gave the creature its name: Elasmosaurus platyurus.Ĭope’s publishing of Elasmosaurus is infamous among those familiar with his participation in the Bone Wars, a time of prolific species naming in paleontology between Cope and his rival Othniel Charles Marsh. While he was only able to recover a few vertebrae, he recognized that they must come from some kind of extinct animal, and it was not long before the fossils found themselves in the possession of up-and-coming American Paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope. It was the Spring of 1867, 23 kilometers northeast of Fort Wallace, Kansas, where American army surgeon Theophilus Turner made one of the most important fossil discoveries of the decade. ![]()
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