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Floating dinosaurs: species, description, origin

According to modern paleontologists, giant ancient reptiles began to master the water element at the end of the Permian period of their life on Earth. Scientists claim that the ancient reptiles throughout their entire lives always returned to the water. The reason for this - the abundance of underwater food and, of course, safety.

In the seas and oceans

It is interesting that life in the seas and oceans did not require any fundamental reorganization of the organism from the ancient pangolins: one should only remember the modern reptiles living in the water, but having a completely overland appearance. For example, these are crocodiles or marine iguanas.

It is worth noting that the movement and nutrition of dinosaurs in the water - it's energy costs, accounting for only a quarter of all the costs necessary for their movement and food directly on land! Especially easily returned to the water are the so-called primitive dinosaurs - the dead-end branch in evolution. But this is a completely different story.

The first floating dinosaurs - who are they?

Scientists believe that the first true aquatic species of dinosaurs were Permian mesosaurs, representing a subclass of anapsids. After them, representatives of the so-called primitive diapsids returned to the water: tangosaurs, hovazaurus and claudiosaurs.

They all belonged to the detachment of eozochias and reached a length of only 50 cm. Only in the middle of the Triassic period, these floating dinosaurs "grew" to two meters long, turning into serious and even dangerous reptiles.

Outwardly they resembled today's newts from the class of amphibians: aquatic eozooks had a long tail, flattened from the sides, and a crest passing along the back through the entire body. In the Triassic period, there were no more than 5 groups of aquatic reptiles on Earth. One of them we just considered is the water eosuhii. Consider in detail and other types of floating dinosaurs.

Placodonts

Outwardly these reptiles resembled small long-tailed seals. Their length did not exceed 1.5 m. The body of the placodonts had a streamlined and spindly shape. Head small, paws short. The methods of swimming dinosaurs belonging to the group of placodonts did not differ in a special variety: the reptiles just pulled along their awkward short paws and swam like small torpedoes.

As already mentioned above, the whole truth about dinosaur placodontia, like many other aquatic reptiles, is shrouded in darkness and mystery. Scientists tend to believe that these are the descendants of some ancient anapsids. Nevertheless, the century of placodontia was short - these creatures were born at the beginning of the Triassic, but already completely extinct by the end of the Triassic.

Notosaurs

This is another floating dinosaur living in the era of the Triassic. Their dimensions reached 4 m in length, but the overwhelming majority of them were still much less. Predatory reptiles had a streamlined trunk, a short tail, a rather flexible neck equal to the length of their body.

They had a small head with a mouth, armed with sharp teeth. These creatures moved in the water with the help of monotonous movements of the tail, creating a driving force, and also through their webbed feet.

If there was a need for notosaurs, they easily climbed ashore and basked in the sun. Scientists are convinced that predators were ancient brushwork species of fish. It is curious that in the second half of the Triassic period, these creatures spawned a separate branch of the now known aquatic predators - plesiosaurs. The notosaurs themselves died out towards the end of the Triassic.

Tallatosaurs

Representatives of this group outwardly resembled the above-described notosaurs, only the neck was shorter and the head larger. Ways to swim dinosaurs of this group can not be called unique: they did not use their paws at all, but simply pulled them along the trunk like placodontia.

Scientists tend to believe that these creatures originated from some ancient and primitive anapsids, even older than the previously mentioned water eosuchia. They died to the end of the Triassic, like the notosaurs. No descendants left after themselves.

Ichthyosaurs

This is the last group, which was represented by the world's most famous floating dinosaurs - ichthyosaurs. Ichthyosaurs are better than all other pangolins adapted to life and habitat in the seas and oceans. It is known that these predators are descendants of diapsids, and which ones are unknown. Ichthyosaurs appeared in the Permian period, although the oldest remains of these reptiles date back to the lower Triassic period.

Outwardly ichthyosaurs completely repeated the form of today's fish. Their triangular head with forward jaws resembled the head of dolphins. The torso, flattened from the sides, the vertical lobe of the tail and paws, turned into fins, made them unlike all their water predecessors.

Giant among floating dinosaurs

His name is lyoplevrodon. It is the largest water predator of all time, being the most studied species. Its dimensions are still the subject of a dispute between scientific men. According to the majority of experts, lyoplevrodons in length could reach 25 m, and weigh up to 150 tons! According to some sources, this is the largest predator that ever lived on Earth. By the way, he belonged to the already mentioned plesiosaurs and lived during the Jurassic period.

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