蛇頸龍

蛇頸龍（學名：Plesiosaurus）係一個屬嘅絕咗種嘅大型海生爬行動物，屬鰭龍超目（Sauropterygia），存在於侏羅紀早期（距今大約 1 億 9,960 萬年前至 1 億 7,560 萬年前），分佈於歐洲嘅海域同包括澳洲、北美、以及亞洲等嘅太平洋地區。

日本一個蛇頸龍復原骨架

外形

蛇頸龍外形上嘅特徵如下：

• 佢哋身長平均有成 3 至 5 米；
• 個頭細，鼻哥窿近眼，啲牙又長又尖銳（明顯係食肉）；
• 佢哋有又長又幼嘅頸，條頸有相當嘅彈性，有古生物學研究估計，佢哋喺獵食魚群嗰陣，可能曉靠左右揈個頭嚟一嘢擔走多條魚；
• 蛇頸龍嘅身體好似龜噉闊形，條尾（相對於條頸）比較短，而身體有兩對又大又長、好似槳噉形嘅肢體，能夠靠拍打四肢嚟游水（好似海獅等動物噉）。

睇埋

• 尼斯湖水怪

參考

• Andrews, C. W. 1896. "On the structure of the plesiosaurian skull". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, London, 52, 246-253.
• Brown, D. S. 1981. "The English Upper Jurassic Plesiosauroidea (Reptilia) and a review of the phylogeny and classification of the Plesiosauria". Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History): Geology, 35, (4), 253-347.
• Cruickshank, A. R. I.; Small, P. G.; and Taylor, M. A. 1991. "Dorsal nostrils and hydrodynamically driven underwater olfaction in plesiosaurs". Nature, 352, 62-64.
• Lydekker, R. 1889. Catalogue of the fossil Reptilia and Amphibia in the British Museum (Natural History), Part II. Containing the Orders Ichthyopterygia and Sauropterygia. British Museum (Natural History)
• Richard Owen, Fossil Reptili of the Liassic Formations, pt iii. (Monogr. Palaeont. Soc., 1865)
• Persson, P. O. 1963. A revision of the classification of the Plesiosauria with a synopsis of the stratigraphical and geographical distribution of the group. Lunds Universitets Årsskrift, N. F. Avd. 2. 59, 1-59.
• Storrs, G. W. 1991. "Anatomy and relationships of Corosaurus alcovensis (Diapsida: Sauropterygia) and the Triassic Alcova Limestone of Wyoming". Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, 44, 1-151.
• Storrs, G. W. and Taylor, M. A. 1996. "Cranial anatomy of a new plesiosaur genus from the lowermost Lias (Rhaetian/Hettangian) of Street, Somerset, England". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 16, (3), 403-420.
• Storrs, G. W. 1997. "Morphological and taxonomic clarification of the genus Plesiosaurus". 145-190. In Callaway, J. M and Nicholls, E. L. (eds.). Ancient Marine Reptiles. Academic press. London.
• Taylor, M. A. and Cruickshank, A. R. I. 1993. Cranial anatomy and functional morphology of Pliosaurus brachyspondylus (Reptilia: Plesiosauria) from the Upper Jurassuc of Westbury, Wiltshire. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B, 341, 399-418.
• Torrens, Hugh 1995. "Mary Anning (1799–1847) of Lyme; 'The Greatest Fossilist the World Ever Knew'". The British Journal for the History of Science, 25 (3): 257–284.

拎

• Genus Plesiosaurus - The Plesiosaur Directory.
• Plesiosauroidea - Palaeos.
• Plesiosauria – Mikko's Phylogeny Archive