183-Million-Year-Old Fossil Reveals That Plesiosaur Skin Was Smooth and Scaly

Dive into the findings of the first detailed study of plesiosaur skin, which was a strange mosaic of textures.

By Sam Walters
Feb 10, 2025 9:45 PMFeb 10, 2025 9:44 PM
Reconstruction of the new plesiosaur
Reconstruction of the new plesiosaur with scales on the flipper and smooth scale-less skin along the body as informed by this new plesiosaur fossil. This is a significant update to how we reconstruct plesiosaurs which has otherwise not changed substantially since their initial discovery more than 200 years ago. (Credit: Joschua Knüppe)

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Is it better to be smooth or to be scaly? For fossil plesiosaurs around 183 million years ago, the answer was a bit of both. Scrutinizing some of the first soft tissues from a fossil plesiosaur in a study in Current Biology, a team of researchers has revealed that these massive marine reptiles sported both smooth and scaly skin, potentially suited to swimming as well as to skimming or “bottom-walking” over the seafloor.

“Fossilized soft tissue, such as skin and internal organs, is exceptionally rare,” said Miguel Marx, lead study author and a geology graduate student at Lund University in Sweden, in a press release. “We used a broad range of techniques to identify smooth skin in the tail region as well as scales along the rear edge of the flippers. This provided us with unparalleled insights into the appearance and biology of these long-extinct reptiles.”


Read More: Why Were Prehistoric Marine Reptiles So Huge?

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