Tanystropheus, a strange marine reptile that lived alongside dinosaurs, has puzzled paleontologists since its discovery in the mid-1800s. At first, scientists mistook the species for flying reptiles, due to their extremely elongated neck bones. Only later did they realize that the vertebrae framed a neck so long that it looked like evolution was trying to create a cartoon.
Now, a new paper seeks to answer a nearly 170-year-old question: Wasn’t such a long and awkward neck a liability?
The larger Tanystropheus species was all neck: Of its 20 feet of length, including the tail, 10 feet of it was neck, which was three times the length of the torso. It also had 13 elongated vertebrae that held the proud column together. This sounds like a precious few until you hear that giraffes and humans share the same number of spinal bones (seven), although the former are much, much longer.
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