Dinocephalosaurus orientalis's snake-like body was 16 feet long and lived in Triassic China. The newly revealed specimen allows scientists to depict the creature in full for the first time.
snake-like body was 16 feet long and lived in Triassic China. The newly revealed specimen allows scientists to depict the creature in full for the first time.While the reptile was first identified in 2003, this latest discovery is more complete — about 16 feet long — and allowed the scientists to depict the strange, prehistoric creature in full for the first time.
Professor Li Chun from the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology said the find has been an international effort — the researchers behind the discovery are from Scotland, Germany, America and China.The team studied the bizarre reptile at the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology in Beijing. Its flippered limbs and exquisitely preserved fish in its stomach indicate the reptile was adapted to the ocean, the researchers said.
"We used newly discovered specimens housed at the Chinese Academy of Sciences to build on our existing knowledge of this animal," said Chun."Among all of the extraordinary finds we have made in the Triassic of Guizhou Province, Dinocephalosaurus probably stands out as the most remarkable.
The neck has 32 separate vertebrae — longer than the creature's body and tail combined — and presumably played a key role in feeding, according to a study published by the Cambridge University Press.
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