Category «Plesiosauroidea»

Update on the ‘Kreis Hoxter plesiosaur’

I reported in Summer 2007 on a four-metre-long plesiosaur skeleton that was discovered in Kreis Hoxter, near Bielefeld, Northern Germany by amateur collector Sönke Simonsen. I can now provide a short update on the fossil. The specimen was successfully excavated in ten large blocks by the LWL-Museum für Naturkunde, Münsterand, where preparation of the skeleton is well underway.

Research suggests long-necked plesiosaurs fed on seabed

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 Noe of the University of Cambridge . After examination of the neck vertebrae of the long-necked plesiosaur Muraenosaurus, whose name translates as ‘Moray eel lizard’, Dr Noe concluded that the natural position of the neck was a downwards curve towards the sea-bed.