#elasmosaurids

[ladsoftheocean]

Found some Elasmosaurid teeth in the Mosa bundle I ordered! Also, another Zarafasaurus Oceanis vertebra! Lit!

[uk-fossils]

Shedding light on an isolated skull: a newly described elasmosaur skeleton from the Late Cretaceous of Morocco

Shedding light on an isolated skull: a newly described elasmosaur skeleton from the Late Cretaceous of Morocco

The bodiless plesiosaur

In 2011, a plesiosaur specimen, consisting of an isolated and crushed skull, was described. The collected skull sadly lacked any postcranial remains, but was identified as an elasmosaurid plesiosaur and considered to be something new. Therefore, it was given the name Zarafasaura oceanis. The skull was collected in the Sidi Daoui area, near the city of Oued Zem, situated…

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[radicaldinosaurfan]

How flexible was the neck of Elasmosaurus and other Plesiosaurs?

Elasmosaurids, with anywhere from 32 to 76 cervical vertebrae would most likely have had necks ranging from “very flexible” to “insanely flexible.” Of course factoring for the fact that these are bones and not cartilage.

(source)

Plesiosaurs in general though have much more diversity in their neck lengths, vertebrae counts, and thus flexibility, so within that order it’s really down to particular families or genus.

(source)

Liopleurodon, for example, is also a Plesiosaur but members of their family (Pliosauridae) tend to have much shorter and less flexible necks than their crazy Elasmosaurid relatives.