The mythical Loch Ness Monster now has a little sister — a tiny aquatic animal that lived in the Triassic Period around 220 million years ago. Discovered from fossils from Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, the new species represents a new taxon of tanystropheid, a type of real ancient reptile — sorry Nessie — that’s recognized by its long neck.
“Here we describe tanystropheid remains discovered in a multitaxic bone bed at Petrified Forest National Park and name and describe a new tanystropheid taxon,” wrote the paleontologists who discovered the fossils in a study in Palaeodiversity. “After examining their affinities to […] other tanystropheids, we discuss the implications of the discoveries, principally the previously unrecognized tanystropheid diversity.”
Long-Necked Reptiles
Many of the tanystropheids had necks twice as long as their bodies and tails. But besides the length of their necks, these reptiles — which lived throughout the Triassic Period — were “highly diverse in body plans and ecologies,” the paleontologists wrote in their study.
Indeed, while some tanystropheids were small lizard-like animals, only around a few feet in length, others were around 16 to 20 feet long. And while some were suited to life in the water, others adopted a different lifestyle, with the tanystropheids including “taxa interpreted to be aquatic, terrestrial, and potentially even gliding,” the paleontologists wrote in their study.
Of course, North America saw its fair share of strange species throughout the Triassic, including some of these long-necked animals. But up until now, the remains of the tanystropheids have been remarkably rare in the region. “Tanystropheids have historically been found mostly in Europe and China,” added the paleontologists in their study, though “there is a small but expanding record of tanystropheids found in the Triassic of North America.”
The new taxon adds to that record, demonstrating that a wider diversity of tanystropheids lived in North America than previously thought. Represented by the new species Akidostropheus oligos, the taxon likely lived in the swampy ponds and rivers of Northern Arizona, which was then a much warmer and wetter environment.
Read More: These Triassic Reptiles' Necks Were So Long They Lost Their Heads
Tanystropheid Diversity
Discovered by sifting sediment from Petrified Forest’s “Thunderstorm Ridge” through fine metal screens, the fossils of A. oligos are so small that the paleontologists considered them “microfossils.” Once sieved through these screens, the remaining sediment from the site was studied with a microscope, revealing A. oligos’ teeny tiny specimens.
The process yielded an assembly of fossilized vertebrae, all of which are stunningly small (smaller than the average pinky fingernail) and adorned with a strange spike. Since Akidostropheus oligos translates to “tiny, spiked-back bone,” these unique traits are what gave the taxon and its representative species their name.
In addition to stressing that North America was home to a greater number of tanystropheid taxa, the discovery also suggests that these ancient reptiles lived in more environments than previously seen. In fact, up until now, all of North America’s aquatic tanystropheids came from saltwater environments rather than freshwater ones.
Moreover, the find indicates that multiple tanystropheids lived within the same environment in Arizona, as A. oligos’ fossils were found alongside specimens from the two other types of tanystropheid.
“The presence of three distinct types of tanystropheids […] is unusual in that it is a highly diverse tanystropheid assemblage that comes from a single locality, suggesting that multiple taxa of tanystropheids coexisted within a single habitat or closely related habitats,” wrote the paleontologists in their study. “It is additionally remarkable that this highly diverse assemblage is from non-marine continental deposits.”
Ultimately, the study shows that the ponds and rivers of North America had their very own long-necked reptiles — real animals that were much smaller and much more diverse than their imaginary Loch Ness lookalike.
Read More: Past Discoveries Shed Light on the 240-Million-Year-Old ‘Chinese Dragon’ Fossil
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