Elasmosaurus

Question

I'm honored to be the first guest post in the Dinosaur Club. 

Today we will talk about Elasmosaurus. You pronounce it as "ee-lazmo-saw-rus" 

 

Elasmosaurs lived during the late Cretaceous period over 80.5 millions years ago. They could get up to 46 feet in length and had super long necks with 72 vertebrae in the them. 

They needed to breathe air, but probably spent all of their time in the water. They could poke their heads above water to breathe and were slow swimmers. Because of this they are considered to be reptiles.

I read that they are so strange looking, when scientists first found one they put the head where the tail is by mistake when putting it together!

 

Recently, a new species of them was found in Montana that had a much shorter neck with just 40 vertebrae. It is actually a big discovery in the dinosaur world.

 

 

Answer 1

Can this dinosaur fly? In the first picture looks like it's flying.

Answer 2

Is it just me, but does this dinosaur look kind of like a salamander if it was lessvicious, had a different head, and was a whole lot smaller?

Comments

I do see the similarity. A salamander is an amphibian. The Elasmosaurus is classified as a reptile, but it seems like it could have been amphibian like, spending time on land too.

Answer 3

Cool!