“Elasmosaurus” It’s the dinosaur with the largest necks in the history of dinosaurs

Elasmosaurids was well-adapted to life in the water, and it swam with its flippers.

However, it could not have swum in one way while rotating its head and neck in a different direction, either vertically or horizontally.

In addition, their necks were not extremely flexible, and they could not be carried high above sea level, as depicted in earlier paintings.

It’s unclear what these long necks were for; however, they could have been employed for eating.

Elasmosaurus had a compact, streamlined body, lengthy, paddle-like limbs, a little tail, a comparatively tiny head, and a very long neck, according to related elasmosaurids.

However, the only known specimen is fragmented and missing numerous components.

Elasmosaurus and its related Albertonectes had some of the longest necks of any known vertebrates, with the biggest number of neck vertebrae of any recorded vertebrate animals, with a neck length of 23 ft (7 m).

Despite their numerous neck vertebrae, elasmosaurids’ lengthy necks were less than half the body length of the longest-necked sauropod dinosaurs.

Samuel Welles, an American paleontologist, estimated the body length to be 34 ft (10.3 m) in 1952.

Cope approximated the length of Elasmosaurus in his 1869 report by adding vertebral lengths and estimating missing portions, resulting in an overall length of 43 ft (13.1 m).

Due to cartilage between the vertebral bodies, the living animal would have been slightly bigger, and Cope estimated it to be around 45 ft (13.7 m) long.

Other elasmosaurid plesiosaurs, including Thalassomedon and Hydrotherosaurus, were strongly connected to Elasmosaurus.

Its head, by contrast, was comparatively tiny, bulldog-like, and armed with razor-sharp fangs.

Elasmosaurus, like other elasmosaurids, would have possessed a narrow, triangular skull.

Due to the fragmented state of the fossils, it is unknown how many teeth Elasmosaurus sported.

The teeth in the front section of the lower jaw have big fangs, while the teeth at the rear appear to be shorter.

The dentition of these plesiosaurs was typically heterodont (ambiguous throughout the jaws), with teeth getting smaller as they moved backward.

The upper structures of the shoulder blades were wide, and the shoulder blades’ necks were long.

The pectoral girdle had a lengthy bar in the middle, which was assumed to be an advanced characteristic absent in immature plesiosaurs.

This reptile would have possessed enormous, paddle-like limbs, including very long digits, like all other elasmosaurids (and plesiosaurs in common).

The Elasmosaurus size was about 34-46 ft (10.3-14 m). Elasmosaurus spent its entire life in the water, prowling the shore in search of shoals of fish.

In the same manner that seals, crocodiles, and sea lions use today, they ate tiny stones to assist them in digesting their food.

These marine reptiles’ flexion ranges would have enabled them to use a variety of hunting techniques, including benthic grazing, which had required swimming down to the ocean bottom and digging for prey on the seafloor with the head and neck.

Elasmosaurus was a highly diversified and successful species of marine reptiles that dominated the world’s oceans for a long time.

As a result, they might be found in various habitats, from relatively close estuaries to the open sea and even freshwater areas.

While no clear evidence for Elasmosaurus producing eggs on land or birthing to live young is known at this time, most paleontologists assume Elasmosaurus and another closely related plesiosaur would’ve given birth to live young.