Mysteries surrounding an ancient, long-necked reptile that lived 242 million years ago have been resolved after almost 170 years by an international team led by the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History. First described in 1852, Tanystropheus is so difficult to understand from its fossils that at one time scientists weren’t even sure if it swam in the sea or flew in the sky.

Part of the problem was a series of elongated bones that could be mistaken for wing parts but turned out to be segments of a 10-foot-long (3-m) neck that made up half the length of the 20-ft (6-m) crocodile-like reptile, or three times the length of its torso.

The breakthrough came when the researchers made computerized tomography (CT) scans of the crushed fossil skulls and used them to digitally reconstruct the skulls in 3D as they would have looked in life. They found that the Tanystropheus skull had its nostrils on top of the snout like a crocodile, indicating that it lived in the water, lying in wait for prey to swim by, which it would capture with its long, curved teeth. However, like sea turtles and other marine reptiles, it may have come ashore to lay its eggs.

As for the small, supposed juvenile reptiles, the team examined the growth rings in their bones, which showed that these were adults rather than juveniles. So, there are now two distinct species. The smaller is named Tanystropheus longobardicus and the larger Tanystropheus hydroides. These coexisted in the coastal waters of the ancient sea of Tethys by hunting different prey.

“These two closely related species had evolved to use different food sources in the same environment,” says Stephan Spiekman, a researcher at the University of Zurich. “The small species likely fed on small shelled animals, like shrimp, in contrast to the fish and squid the large species ate. This is really remarkable because we expected the bizarre neck to be specialized for a single task, like the neck of a giraffe. But actually, it allowed for several lifestyles. This completely changes the way we look at this animal.”

https://newatlas.com/biology/ct-scan-solves-mystery-425-million-year-old-long-necked-reptile/

PermeateFree said:

Mysteries surrounding an ancient, long-necked reptile that lived 242 million years ago have been resolved after almost 170 years by an international team led by the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History. First described in 1852, Tanystropheus is so difficult to understand from its fossils that at one time scientists weren’t even sure if it swam in the sea or flew in the sky.

Part of the problem was a series of elongated bones that could be mistaken for wing parts but turned out to be segments of a 10-foot-long (3-m) neck that made up half the length of the 20-ft (6-m) crocodile-like reptile, or three times the length of its torso.

The breakthrough came when the researchers made computerized tomography (CT) scans of the crushed fossil skulls and used them to digitally reconstruct the skulls in 3D as they would have looked in life. They found that the Tanystropheus skull had its nostrils on top of the snout like a crocodile, indicating that it lived in the water, lying in wait for prey to swim by, which it would capture with its long, curved teeth. However, like sea turtles and other marine reptiles, it may have come ashore to lay its eggs.

As for the small, supposed juvenile reptiles, the team examined the growth rings in their bones, which showed that these were adults rather than juveniles. So, there are now two distinct species. The smaller is named Tanystropheus longobardicus and the larger Tanystropheus hydroides. These coexisted in the coastal waters of the ancient sea of Tethys by hunting different prey.

“These two closely related species had evolved to use different food sources in the same environment,” says Stephan Spiekman, a researcher at the University of Zurich. “The small species likely fed on small shelled animals, like shrimp, in contrast to the fish and squid the large species ate. This is really remarkable because we expected the bizarre neck to be specialized for a single task, like the neck of a giraffe. But actually, it allowed for several lifestyles. This completely changes the way we look at this animal.”

https://newatlas.com/biology/ct-scan-solves-mystery-425-million-year-old-long-necked-reptile/

This is great. Thanks PF.

> First described in 1852, Tanystropheus is so difficult to understand from its fossils that at one time scientists weren’t even sure if it swam in the sea or flew in the sky.

I love it.

> They found that the Tanystropheus skull had its nostrils on top of the snout like a crocodile, indicating that it lived in the water

The shape of the teeth indicates that it are both fish and land animals. Note that T rex also has nostrils on top of its snout, and teeth shapes not to different to Tanystropheus.

> As for the small, supposed juvenile reptiles, the team examined the growth rings in their bones, which showed that these were adults rather than juveniles. So, there are now two distinct species

Good.