In ancient times, on the vast and boundless deep blue sea, there were countless huge beasts, giant beasts with long necks, short four fins, they either leisurely played in the water, or shook the front and back fins, extended their necks to prey on fish, or competed with other giant creatures, roared in pairs, or gathered in pairs to play, or tried to jump out of the sea, like blue jewels shining, and the surrounding environment, like a beautiful landscape painting that seems to be in its own place. In the Mesozoic era in which plesiosaurs lived, plesiosaurs were arguably one of the most ornate ocean overlords in history. Over the long years, plesiosaurs have also evolved, constantly emerging new breeds.
At the end of the 19th century, paleontologists found a strange fossil of plesiosaur, which was found to be formed about 210 million years ago, which coincided with the late Triassic period, and paleontologists believed that plesiosaurs used oars to swim, so they named it Oaredosaurus. The appearance of paddle dragons is rare, belonging to the early plesiosaurs, but biologists have found that their body structure is much more perfect than that of some later plesiosaurs, that is, before the paddle dragon, there were more primitive plesiosaurs. When paleontologists classified it, they found it difficult to classify it because its characteristics were not yet obvious. Later, it had to be classified as an early primitive breed of plesiosaur. The classification of the plesiosaur family is somewhat confusing, in scientific research, where its classification is not very clear, it is named a certain species, which leads to the classification of plesiosaurs is very cumbersome and messy.
Fossils of paddle dragons
Cryptocephalus mainly lived in Europe and other regions, about 3-4 meters long, is a small plesiosaur, the reason for this name, because its collarbone is very small, if it is from the lower part of the skeleton upwards can not see its collarbone, so it got its name. At present, a large number of cryptocephalus fossils have been found from which we can see that it has a very large feature, that is, the mouth has densely packed slender and sharp teeth, and biologists have counted it, and its number is about 100, all of which are protruding outwards, and in the deep sea area where the light is very weak, this row of shiny teeth is very eye-catching and very intimidating. In fact, these teeth are not strong, or not so sharp, that they cannot be used to vigorously bite prey, so these teeth are just superficially intimidating and can be used to deter the enemy.
Because the teeth can't be too hard, paleontologists speculate that the way they catch food should be similar to that of whales, "filter feeding", that is, opening their mouths, swallowing seawater, fish, molluscs, etc., and then excreting the seawater, leaving only fish and mollusks and other food. Cryptocephalus was named in 1892 and the Cryptocephalosaurus was established in 1925, and the common denominators of this family of dragons are: long necks, many teeth on the jaw, but not very strong, and can only feed on mollusks and small fish.
In the late Jurassic period, cryptocephalosaurs reached their most glorious period, when also more prosperous was the moray eel. Moray eel dragon is not very large, about 5 meters long, of which the neck length is almost half of the body length, the torso is round and rolling, the tail is very short, there are 4, can swim flexibly in the sea, can also crawl on land, is a typical amphibian, its lifestyle and seals, walruses, etc. are very similar, often swimming in the shallow sea area, playing, lifting the neck, you can view the food around, once found not far away from the soft organisms or fish, it will dive into the water at a speed, and then quietly approach the food target, pounce on it, attack , bite the prey. The moray eel has a long neck and can move flexibly in the water, but it does not swim very fast, so it uses more raids in predation.
The dragon is one of the earliest species in the family Flakeosaurus, and the origin of its name is related to an Australian legend. It is said that there are many aborigines in Australia, and there is a saying among the aborigines that there is a very large monster living on a certain coast, and it will always appear with a rumbling sound, the waves tumbling, the sea churning, and the sound is like thunder. Scientists named it Boom dragon based on the sound of its appearance. Boom dragon lived in the early Cretaceous, relatively more well-known flakes of the dragon, 50 million years earlier, can be said to be a more primitive flake dragon species, its appearance caused the enthusiasm of paleontologists, they have invested in the study of the plan of the dragon, and found that the length of the cervical vertebrae of the dragon is greater than the width, has begun to show the characteristics of the late large neck.
Although it lived very early, its body structure was even much better than that of the later evolutionary flakyosaurs in some aspects, because of the way it evolved. In different environments, organs will actively choose the evolutionary direction that is most suitable for the current environment, so in the later period, there are many types of flavonosaurs. In 1960, paleontologists discovered the fossil of The Dragon, but the fossil is incomplete, especially the skull is partially mutilated. Until 1982, paleontologists found a relatively complete dragon head bone, this discovery is of great significance, paleontologists can not be as in the past, just according to the characteristics of the snake to guess the skull part, the discovery of skull fossils can further improve its knowledge.
Flavonosaurus is our more familiar species of plesiosaur, it is famous, people in the plesiosaur, usually refers to the flakeosaurus, it is almost the most perfect representative of the late evolution of plesiosaur. The sea flake dragon has a long neck, accounting for about half of its body length, and similar to a giraffe, the advantage of the long neck is that it can view the prey from a distance and choose the right time to suddenly attack. In fact, Flavonosaurus could only catch food in this way, because its neck flexibility was very poor, and its head was very small, and it could not catch large prey, and could only use this method to catch some small fish or mollusk food, generally up to 12 meters in length.
Flakeosaurus lived in the late Cretaceous period, about 80 million years ago, and was a major landscape on Earth at that time. Biologists have found gastrolithia in its stomach. The role of the stone is to grind food and assist digestion. It lives in the water all his life, swims not very fast, and relies on its neck and four fins to change direction. Flakeosaurus had a small head, sharp teeth, and a slender tail and neck. In order to reproduce, Pliculosaurus often spent a long time looking for a companion and a place of origin, and some paleontologists believe that Lamelosaurus would take care of the cubs until they could rely on themselves.
Plesiosaurs are like the darlings of the ocean, and in the more than 100 million years of their existence, they have always been at the top of the marine life chain and are the best predators in the ocean. Their image of galloping in the ocean and moving forward deeply affects people, even though they have been extinct for 80 million years, people still miss their magnificent figures.