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| Tanystropheus |
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| Tanystropheus had a snap-off tail and the longest neck possible
within the laws of physics.
Type: Reptile
Size: 6m long
Diet: Carnivore
Lived: Late Triassic, 235-210 million years ago.
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| Three quarters of Tanystropheus' body length was its neck and tail.
If its neck had been any longer its head might have snapped off.
Tanystropheus lived in shallow waters but came ashore too. On land,
Tanystropheus ate insects and small reptiles. In the water, it would
gobble up fish and ammonites. Tanystropheus was not a fast swimmer so often walked along the seabed
and used its long neck to get within range of prey without being
noticed. Like some lizards alive today, its tail could detach if seized
by a predator, to allow an escape. It would then regrow. |
| Tanystropheus was a 6 metre (20 ft) long
reptile
that dated from the Middle
Triassic period. The main feature that stands out about this animal
is its extremely elongated neck, which measured 3 meters (10 ft) long,
longer than its body and tail combined. Despite this length, it had only
ten neck
vertebrae. With this incredibly long but relatively stiff neck,
Tanystropheus has been often proposed and reconstructed as an
aquatic or semi-aquatic reptile, which might have lived near the shore
and eaten fish or shellfish. However Tanystropheus lacked any
obvious water adaptations. Fossils of this creature have been found in
Europe
and the
Middle East. Tribelesodon, originally considered to be a
pterosaur by
Francesco Bassani in
1886, is
now recognized as a
junior synonym to Tanystropheus. The best-known species is
Tanystropheus longobardicus. Other currently recognized species
include T. conspicuus and T. meridensis
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