Did plesiosaurs have the hump?

Post author:Adam S. Smith
Post published:21/11/2020
Post comments:4 Comments
Post category:Anatomy palaeobiology Popular culture

Restoration of the skeleton of Muraenosaurus in lateral view. From Andrews 1910.

Pick a random piece of plesiosaur paleoart and chances are the animal will be depicted with an arched back. A hump, almost. But did plesiosaurs really have the hump? This arched posture can be traced back in the scientific literature to Andrews’ 1910-13 seminal works on the marine reptiles from the Oxford Clay. He reconstructed the skeletons of Cryptoclidus, Muraenosaurus,...

Investigating plesiosaur swimming using computer simulations

Post author:Adam S. Smith
Post published:18/12/2015
Post comments:5 Comments
Post category:Anatomy Commentary New paper palaeobiology

One of the many areas of controversy in plesiosaur palaeobiology is the topic of how they swam. The question goes back almost 200 years to the 1820s when the first complete plesiosaurs were described from the Jurassic cliffs of Lyme Regis, UK. Plesiosaur swimming is a particularly difficult topic to study for a number of reasons. Plesiosaurs are extinct so...

Why did elasmosaurids have such a long neck?

Post author:Adam S. Smith
Post published:23/11/2014
Post comments:18 Comments
Post category:Anatomy Commentary Elasmosauridae palaeobiology Plesiosauroidea Popular culture

It was once common knowledge that elasmosaurid plesiosaurs were bendy-necked beasts that swanned about near the surface, striking snake-like at slippery prey. It is now common knowledge that their necks were relatively rigid rod-like structures, the function of which remains something of a mystery. The truth, with regard to flexibility at least, is probably somewhere in between. The most recent...

The Smallest Plesiosaur

Post author:Richard Forrest
Post published:23/10/2014
Post comments:0 Comments
Post category:Biology Commentary New discovery palaeobiology

Some museum collections contain a few scraps of plesiosaur materal. Others have large quantities. Whatever the size of the collection, there are almost always odd specimens which are interesting in one way or another and usually encountered whilst engaged in some completely different project. We may make a mental note to come back to them, but usually either forget, or...

An old debate settled – plesiosaurs gave birth to live young

Post author:Adam S. Smith
Post published:11/08/2011
Post comments:3 Comments
Post category:Announcement New discovery New paper palaeobiology Polycotylidae

Depiction of Polycotylus giving birth to a single large baby. Based on evidence presented by O'Keefe and Chiappe 2011. Image by S. Abramowicz/NHM

An exciting new paper published this week in the journal Science (Vol. 333, p.870-873) provides the first direct evidence for live birth in plesiosaurs, and may have implications for plesiosaur behaviour (O’Keefe and Chiappe 2011). The plesiosaur Polycotylus giving birth to a single large baby. Based on new fossil evidence. Image by S. Abramowicz/NHM Whether plesiosaurs laid eggs or gave...

Monstertalk Podcast – The Plesiosaur Hypothesis

Post author:Adam S. Smith
Post published:05/09/2009
Post comments:3 Comments
Post category:Commentary Monsters Online resource palaeobiology

Monstertalk is a new sceptical podcast focussing on all things cryptozoological. The most recent episode (episode 004) delves into the idea that plesiosaurs may still be alive today, lurking in lochs and lakes around the world – the so called Plesiosaur Hypothesis. I was interviewed as a guest on this episode and took part in a long discussion about...

Recent plesiosaur papers – a round up

Post author:Adam S. Smith
Post published:07/10/2008
Post comments:0 Comments
Post category:Anatomy Commentary Education & outreach New paper New taxon palaeobiology Rhomaleosaurus

So far, 2008 has seen a healthy number of new papers on plesiosaurs and a few new taxa too. Way back in February, Druckenmiller and Russell (2008a) introduced Nichollsia borealis, a plesiosaur of uncertain affinity, based on a beautifully preserved specimen from Alberta, Canada. More recently, Druckenmiller and Russell (2008b) published a large scale cladistic analysis of plesiosauria to try...

Research suggests long-necked plesiosaurs fed on seabed

Post author:Adam S. Smith
Post published:03/11/2006
Post comments:0 Comments
Post category:Elasmosauridae palaeobiology Plesiosauroidea

The long neck of the plesiosaur is a mysterious adaptation for which many hypotheses have been proposed. The most recent suggestion comes from Dr Leslie Noè of the University of Cambridge . After examining the neck vertebrae of the long-necked plesiosaur Muraenosaurus, whose name translates as ‘Moray eel lizard’, Dr Noè concluded that the natural position of the neck was...