New Specimens Of A 240-Million-Year-Old Chinese "Dragon"

The paper appears in Earth and Environmental Science: Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Olivier, long-time collaborator Li Chun (Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology [IVPP], Beijing), and other colleagues originally described the species in 2003—those of you who have been around a while may recall seeing the first articulated specimen of the species, which was exhibited here at the Field as the Sneaky Sea Creature in 2005. The discovery of additional, more complete specimens, including one that is fully articulated, has allowed scientists to depict the bizarre long-necked creature in full for the very first time. With 32 separate neck vertebrae, D. orientalis had an extraordinarily long neck that draws comparison with that of Tanystropheus hydroides, another strange marine reptile from the Middle Triassic of both Europe and China. Both reptiles were of similar size and have several features of the skull in common, including a fish-trap type of dentition. However, Dinocephalosaurus is unique in possessing many more vertebrae both in the neck and the torso, giving the animal a much more snake-like appearance. The reptile was clearly very well adapted to an oceanic lifestyle, as indicated by the flippered limbs and exquisitely preserved fishes in its stomach region. Despite superficial similarities, Dinocephalosaurus was not closely related to the famous long-necked plesiosaurs that evolved around 40 million years later. The fossils were discovered in Guizhou Province, southern China. Dr. Nick Fraser FRSE, Keeper of Natural Sciences at National Museums Scotland and a co-author, calls the fossil “yet one more example of the weird and wonderful world of the Triassic that continues to baffle palaeontologists.” Researchers from Scotland, Germany, America and China studied the fossil over the course of 10 years at the IVPP. The research was covered by NPR, CNN, BBC, ABC, CBS, MSN, as well as many outlets that don’t have three-letter acronyms, like The Independent, India Today, Daily Mail, People, and many more.
March 22, 2024