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UnevenEdge

What would be the evolutionary advantage for a plesiosaur to have a long neck?


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Posted
53 minutes ago, GuyBeardmane said:

Like, as an aquatic dinosaur with the broad body and fins on its body, wouldn't the head and neck just be at the mercy of water resistance and the current?

On some Discovery program I saw (from back when they were doing a lot of dino shows), some paelentologist (or however you spell it) said that it kept the prey fish from realizing that there was a large predator closing in, since they didn't register the large body until after the relatively small head and thin neck had already arrived and started dining.

Or maybe something else; I should probably go watch it again.

Posted
1 hour ago, GuyBeardmane said:

Like, as an aquatic dinosaur with the broad body and fins on its body, wouldn't the head and neck just be at the mercy of water resistance and the current?

Maybe to keep vial organs safe while coming up for air?

Posted
21 hours ago, mthor said:

On some Discovery program I saw (from back when they were doing a lot of dino shows), some paelentologist (or however you spell it) said that it kept the prey fish from realizing that there was a large predator closing in, since they didn't register the large body until after the relatively small head and thin neck had already arrived and started dining.

Or maybe something else; I should probably go watch it again.

This is probably your closest answer.

Also, those guys aren't dinosaurs. They're aquatic reptiles. Thats like saying eels are alligators.

Triassic critters were weird af; slapped right between two mass extinctions. 

 

Posted
On 3/27/2019 at 7:20 AM, SwimModSponges said:

This is probably your closest answer.

Also, those guys aren't dinosaurs. They're aquatic reptiles. Thats like saying eels are alligators.

Triassic critters were weird af; slapped right between two mass extinctions. 

 

I'm going to call plesiosaurs and pteradactyls dinsosaurs with no shame because that's what my dino books from when I was a tyke taught me. And there's nothing you can do to stop me.

Posted

I'd also hazard a guess that the body doesn't seem especially designed for maneuverability, so an elongated neck may help in catching elusive prey.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Could be for superior fighting of other competition predators. There were a large number of giant alpha predators during that time. There is a whale I forget the name which was bigger than megalodon and carnivorous. They typically had two ways of fighting, ramming each other at high speed from below so as to damage the internal organs and force them up towards the surface disorienting. The second way was side to side grappling biting each other, at least from what I've read, I can think of some scenarios in which a long neck would definitely assist a Dino of reaching back and biting back if they were already caught by a larger predator.

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