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A new study on Tanystropheus

  • Posted By
    10Pointer
  • Categories
    Environment
  • Published
    11th Aug, 2020
  • A recent study has unveiled fresh details surrounding the Tanystropheus.
  • It is a reptile that lived on Earth some 242 million years ago.
  • It had a remarkably elongated neck which was longer than its body and tail combined.
  • They are believed to have lived around the Monte San Giorgio basin on the Swiss-Italian border during the middle Triassic period (247-237 million years ago).
  • They were originally mistaken to be a kind of Pterosaura flying reptile.
  • Other crucial aspects like its diet, whether it lived on land or water or both are unknown since its fossil was first discovered some 150 years ago.
  • A group of scientists studied two specimens of the reptile – a full adult and a smaller animal.
  • Scientists used a high-resolution computed tomography (CT scan) to reconstruct a three-dimensional (3D) prototype of the crushed skull.
  • It is found that it was hunted underwater in an aquatic environment and the placement of the nostrils on the top of the snout would have made survival on land difficult.

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