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Scientists can now paint a picture of what a ‘strange marine reptile’ looked like 240 million years ago, thanks to some newly discovered fossils .
The National Museums of Scotland announced on Friday that an international research team has succeeded for the first time in “depicting a bizarre long-necked creature” named Dinocephalosaurus orientalis.
This aquatic reptile, believed to have lived in the Triassic period of China, has been on the radar of scientists since 2003, but now a more complete specimen, including one fully articulated fossil, has been discovered. , we had the opportunity to get a complete picture of this creature.
Dr. Nick Fraser, director of natural sciences at the National Museums of Scotland, told CNN that the fossil gave scientists “a beautiful, complete specimen from nose to tail.” The figure eight…reminds me very much of a Chinese dragon. ”
The bones were first discovered over 10 years ago.
The fragments, later identified as Dinocephalosaurus orientalis, were first discovered by Li Chun, a professor at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, according to CNN.
Fraser told CNN that Chun was visiting a village in southwestern China’s Guizhou province when he noticed a small vertebrae inside a slab of limestone. He found other bone fragments in a nearby pigpen and pieced the pieces together to discover the new species, CNN reported.
Scientists were able to discover that the Chinese dragon had 32 separate neck bones, giving it an extremely long neck for an aquatic reptile, according to a news release from the National Museums of Scotland. .
This discovery alone has surprised scientists, who have already speculated that the creature’s long neck may help it feed. But its exact function is unclear, according to research published in the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s journal Earth and Environmental Science Transactions.
“I’m still baffled by the function of a long neck,” Fraser told CNN. “The only thing I can think of is that they were feeding on rocks and possibly open water.”
Chinese dragons are similar to other marine reptiles
According to the National Museums of Scotland, scientists have come to compare the ‘Chinese dragon’ to Tanystropheus hydrodes, another ancient marine reptile with an unusually long neck.
According to the National Museums of Scotland, Tanystropheus hydrodes is thought to have existed around the same time as the Chinese dragon, and has been observed in both Europe and China.
Dinocephalosaurus orientalis and Tanystropheus hydrodes both have similar dimensions and skull characteristics and are considered marine reptiles.
According to the National Museums of Scotland, the “Chinese dragon” most closely resembles a snake, as it has more vertebrae in both its neck and torso.
The National Museum of Scotland said its upturned limbs and fish preserved in its abdomen are one of many pieces of evidence that the reptile was “clearly very well adapted to marine life”. Ta.
“As paleontologists, we use modern analogs to understand past life. There are no modern analogs for Dinocephalosaurus and Tanystropheus,” Fraser told CNN. he said, adding that he had considerable difficulty finding a modern analogue.
Contributor: Issy Ronald; CNN
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