The largest underwater dinosaurs. Russian dinosaurs. Vantablack - blacker than black

Recently, researchers discovered the fossil of a huge flying reptile that could eat the entire prey it caught without, as they say, choking. And we are talking about “food” the size of a modern horse.

The remains of an ancient creature were discovered in Transylvania, a famous historical region in Romania. Experts suggest that the find is about 66-70 million years old.

Researchers say they have found a fossilized cervical vertebra of Hacegopteryx, a genus of azhdarchid pterosaur that lived during the Upper Cretaceous era (70.6 - 66 million years ago) in what is now Romania.

Experts describe them as creatures with a short but massive neck and big jaws. That is, the animal was capable of swallowing a small person or child.

The size of the found fossilized vertebra is approximately 240 millimeters in length and six millimeters in thickness. And it was the study of the characteristics of the find that allowed scientists to assume that Hatzegopteryx could feed not only on dinosaurs the size of rats, but also on larger individuals. So the diet of pterosaurs clearly needs to be reconsidered.

Paleontologists clarify that Hatzegopteryx was a pterosaur that existed during the time of dinosaurs. Scientists initially believed that pterosaurs ate fairly small prey, such as baby dinosaurs the size of rats. But new fossils show that some large individuals of pterosaurs did not disdain larger prey - horse-sized dinosaurs, for example.

Pterosaurs grew quite massive and large during the Late Cretaceous period - the last geological era when dinosaurs existed on Earth. One of the most famous pterosaur fossils is Quetzalcoatlus, found in Texas, USA. Its wingspan reached 10-12 meters, but the creature itself, as scientists established, fed on mollusks.

Quetzalcoatlus also belonged to the azhdarchid family. And in general, scientists believed that animals of this family had approximately the same body structure - long paws, neck and wings. But the recently discovered fossil of Hacegopteryx has forced them to reconsider their views.

Hacegopteryx had a rather short, but large neck, which was nevertheless much more powerful than that of the other azhdarchids. An ancient creature with powerful wings (the span of which was up to 12 meters) weighed almost a quarter of a ton. Researchers say Hacegopteryx could even be called a dangerous pterosaur due to its huge jaw.

Research about ancient creature with huge jaws published in the scientific publication Peer J.

When dinosaur bones were found in bags in the USA and Canada, in Russia they could not boast of at least one or two vertebrae of ancient animals. The fact is that during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, the territory of present-day Russia was flooded with shallow seas. Dinosaurs lived here too, but finding their remains turned out to be more difficult - water and stones ground their bones into dust. Skeletons were preserved in swamps and volcanic ash, however, glaciers drilled the earth into mush, and glacial waters eroded what was left. But Russian scientists have adapted to such difficult conditions. Now scattered dinosaur bones are found on Far East, and in the Moscow region. This is done professionally by Pavel Skuchas - candidate biological sciences, specialist in Mesozoic vertebrates, associate professor at St. Petersburg State University. Pavel described a new genus of giant dinosaurs - Tengrisaurs, and then a new dinosaur - Sibirotitan, walking around the territory modern Russia 120 million years ago. Agata Korovina talked to Pavel about what dinosaurs we eat for dinner, what Mickey Mouse and amphibians have in common, how humans will change in the future, and whether we will one day be able to herd a dinosaur in our backyard.

If a paleontologist walks through the forest with a girl who is not a paleontologist, what does he see, what will he tell her, given his professional deformation?

If a girl is a biologist, then you can afford a lot... Dinosaurs have a striking feature - their legs are located under the body, slender, while a lizard, for example, has everything sticking out to the side, and it waddles around. And you can give a girl a compliment: “Your legs are like a dinosaur.” The unsavvy one will hit you in the face, but the savvy one will be glad that it’s a good pair, the sagittal alignment of the limbs.

- What about around? We see forest belts, cramps, cliffs, but what do you see?

The brain reacts to quarries, especially when you are traveling on a train. You immediately remember the geological map, the age of the rocks. Sometimes paleontologists jump off the train, run and find interesting things. And the second thing, when you come back from an expedition, it’s very good to look for mushrooms afterwards. It's easier than dice. Because bones are sometimes one centimeter, teeth - one and a half to two millimeters.

- What kind of superpower? How do you find them?

There is a special approach. Bone-bearing rock is collected, ideally some kind of sand or sandstone. A small handful is thrown into a sieve, and you begin to carefully rinse it in water. Small grains of sand and mud float away, leaving stones and bones. And this is where you start to choose. When the eye is trained, one and a half to two millimeters of a tooth is normal, you find it. To find something from the Jurassic period, eyes alone are no longer enough. What remains in the sieve is dried, and then we examine it under a microscope.

- You reconstructed Tengrisaurus using several vertebrae. How is this possible?

Reconstruction of the appearance of fossil organisms from small remains, for example from two vertebrae, is very approximate. The closest relatives of this dinosaur are identified, for which a complete skeleton is known. You can understand whether the dinosaur was 10-12 meters, as in the case of our Siberian sauropod dinosaurs, or whether it was a giant. Scientists rely on published articles. Sometimes for clarification family ties more than one hundred or two hundred signs are used.

- But there will still be a difference: a different jaw, different muscles...

Indeed, therefore, any reconstruction based on an incomplete skeleton is a convention and an assumption.

When paleontologists describe isolated bones in their works, they do not reconstruct the external appearance. This is already the prerogative of people who are interested in paleontology.

It’s great that several wonderful paleoillustrators and paleoartists have appeared in Russia. One of them, for example, is Andrey Atuchin.

The voice of some dinosaurs has been reconstructed. There is a group of dinosaurs that lived at the end of the Cretaceous period, they are called duck-billed dinosaurs, or hadrosaurs. They were herbivores, quite peaceful, although large, 5–6 meters, walked on their hind legs, and the males had hollow ridges on their heads that connected to the nasopharynx. The idea arose that this was a resonator. They created a model, blew it, and got some sound. It's hardly a perfect match because we have to take soft tissue into account, but we still have a rough idea of ​​how dinosaurs screamed.

- Why did these three vertebrae remain, what happened to the rest of the skeleton?

Fossils, especially those of Mesozoic age, were often preserved under very specific conditions. Usually this is a body of water: lake, river, sea. There is a current in the river, so skeletons in river sediments are usually not preserved, they are carried away by the water, they begin to fall apart, and isolated remains are found here.

The desert is ideal for a paleontologist. We worked in Uzbekistan, there are wonderful outcrops of ancient rocks, and dinosaur bones can be collected like mushrooms.

We have forests. You can find something on the banks of rivers where cliffs form, or in active or abandoned quarries. For example, coal is mined, and on top there are layers containing the remains of dinosaurs. This also happens.

When I talked with them, they said that they describe their finds, and photograph them, and sketch them, and make computer models - because they don’t know what will turn out to be important later, because they might miss something now. Do you have something you're not sure about but you just keep it?

Of course, this especially works with isolated residues. There are still bones, we don’t understand whose they are. In the Krasnoyarsk Territory they found very small vertebrae with lancet- and diamond-shaped processes - there is nothing similar in the modern fauna. We can't even identify the group. We only understand that this is some kind of reptile. I showed at conferences: “Colleagues, please, what is this?” (this is normal practice when the paleontologist does not understand anything at all). And still no one has said anything. But we published an article, and when, for example, in the UK they find the skeleton of an animal with the same processes on its vertebrae, they will immediately remember our find, and the problem will be solved. If you cannot solve a problem, set this task to everyone - let everyone think.

- Where in Russia can you find dinosaur bones?

You can list them on the fingers of one hand. A unique place - Chebulinsky district in Kemerovo region. There are a lot of river sediments there, and there is the Shestakovo site, where entire skeletons have been preserved. Other places - surroundings of the city of Blagoveshchensk in the Far East, south Krasnoyarsk Territory, Chita region. The bones in Shestakovo are very fragile.

Even if you find a skeleton and start picking with your finger, everything will quickly fall apart. Specialists had to soak each bone with a special glue. The skeleton is not pulled out of the rock, the rock is coated with plaster and boarded up with boards, this is called “taking with a monolith,” and taken to the laboratory, where it is then cleared.

- How did it happen that dinosaur bones are in Great Britain, and in the Chebulinsky region, and in Antarctica?

The configuration of the continents is constantly changing. When the dawn of the dinosaurs began, the Jurassic period, all the continents were united into a single supercontinent - Pangea. And the composition of faunas in different parts globe was very similar. Fauna of Great Britain from the mid-Jurassic period and Western Siberia almost identical, but these are long distances. Then Pangea split into the northern continent - Laurasia, which included Europe, Asia and North America, and Gondwana - a group of southern continents. Strange creatures have always lived in Gondwana. They penetrated there from Laurasia and evolved there completely independently of other regions.

- What are the specifics of our “Russian” dinosaur? How is it different from the rest?

He is not much different from others. But it is very evolutionarily advanced, that is, it is already a complex sauropod. Giant sauropod dinosaurs, when viewed from afar, are approximately all of the same type: long neck and tail, four legs, large sizes, and then there are some variations: for example, how the teeth were arranged; in primitive ones they are in the form of spoons, that is, with an extension so that bite branches, for more advanced ones - in the form of pencils. Ours is something intermediate between spoons and pencils.

- Was there no protection?

When you are 10–12 meters, no one is afraid of you anymore. The main task of sauropods is to grow to these sizes as quickly as possible. There were sauropods even up to 30 meters, while predators usually grew up to seven meters.

- Why didn’t predators evolve into superpredators?

This is very unprofitable. And 20-meter predators have never existed. Vegetation, apparently, was enough to feed even such giants as sauropods. Predators always have a problem - they need to hunt. Hunting is a big waste of energy. The larger the predator, the more meat it needs.

Predators are very vulnerable, this can be seen even in modern lions and tigers. For example, if a tyrannosaurus breaks a leg while attacking a victim, that’s it, it’s death, because it won’t be able to feed anymore.

Being a very large predator is extremely difficult. Even the Tyrannosaurus rex would hardly have climbed on a giant sauropod, because he understood that the cost of a mistake was very high. Plus some other life experience, because dinosaurs were clearly no more stupid than birds.

- Which dinosaurs have survived to this day?

Only birds. Crocodiles are modern cousins ​​of dinosaurs. Both of them belong to the group of archosaurs. “Arho” means “highest”; archosaurs are the highest lizards.

But from the behavior of modern birds and crocodiles, one can understand how dinosaurs behaved. There is even such a method - bracketing. If crocodiles have complex behavior - caring for offspring, displaying during the mating season, if birds have this, then dinosaurs had it too.

In Mongolia, they even found a dinosaur in the mother hen position.

- When you eat grilled chicken, do you think you're eating a dinosaur?

I thought before. Previously, even with children who are interested in paleontology, we had a separate lesson on the anatomy of dinosaurs, where we ate grilled chicken. Yes, indeed, exactly the same, not much has changed.

- There was a period when a horse could be carried away predator birds. What kind of time is this?

This is the beginning Cenozoic era. Before this was the end of the Cretaceous period, most dinosaurs became extinct, with the exception of birds. The niche of large flightless running predators is empty. Mammals, it seems, have been in some kind of awesome state for several million years - where are these predatory guys? They continued to be quite small. But large predatory animals appeared flightless birds And large crocodiles. Those birds' wings were reduced, and they themselves were about two meters tall. They looked a little like an ostrich: powerful legs, small wings, only a half-meter beak. And the horse was the size of a dog. The bird could kill this horse instantly with a blow from its beak. But then the mammals came to their senses, and predators also appeared among them.

- Is it established by the scratches on the bones that the horses were carried away or is this an assumption?

This is an assumption. When a paleontologist reconstructs the fauna, he looks at who was the herbivore, who was the predator, and identifies the most terrible predator, the top predator. Superpredators usually eat everyone. Let's take white shark- She will eat what she sees. In the taiga, the top predator of spring is bears. A hungry large male will devour another smaller male, both a man and a wild boar.

- Can you then explain why dinosaurs became so smaller?

It is partly a myth that all dinosaurs were large. Dinosaurs occupied different niches. And there were a lot of small dinosaurs. When you're small, you can run and chase insects. This is your niche, you are an insect hunter. The bigger you are, the more vulnerable you are. An absolutely brilliant step - to master flight. When dinosaurs learned to fly, they had a chance to survive - you can fly if the conditions are unfavorable.

- What other evolutionary gadgets helped ancient animals occupy new niches?

Preservation of childish, larval traits into adulthood. This is called paedomorphosis. The second option, when the larva begins to reproduce, is neoteny. This is an absolutely brilliant thing, it is typical for tailed amphibians. There is also such a thing as facultative neoteny. For example, an Ambystoma larva (), very beautiful, with external gills, in a pond South America faces a life dilemma: to go on land or not. If there is a lot of food - a lot and good - why go through metamorphosis? And it remains a larva and begins to reproduce. The second way is that the reservoir dries up, there is little food, which means you go through metamorphosis and become a terrestrial salamander.

Inhibition of some development program, acquisition and consolidation of childhood traits is generally a very common evolutionary background. For example, you and I have a lot of paedomorphic traits. Even if we go to the mirror, we look at ourselves - typical childish features: large eyes, elongated muzzle.

Absolutely right. Can be different reasons, which slow down the program. A common case is when part of the body becomes paedomorphic, and some, on the contrary, superdeveloped. For example, swarming frogs suddenly begin to develop a very powerful skull, while the rest of the body remains semi-cartilaginous. Both Mickey Mouse and female anime characters are paedomorphic. The latter have big eyes, the breasts are of a very serious size, the result is a mixture: hyperdeveloped breasts with a completely childish head.

There are a lot of such mixes. It is even believed that humans, dinosaurs, and vertebrates in general arose through paedomorphosis. Our phylum is chordates. Our relatives are tunicates. Tunicates have a larva with a tail and a sessile stage. Now let’s imagine: the sessile stage is lost, the larva begins to multiply, and thus, most likely, “proto-fish” appeared. But then the “protofish” developed jaws, and they became fish, fish came to land, amphibians gave rise to reptiles that broke away from the water, and then it came to dinosaurs and humans.

I heard a crazy theory that aliens are people from the future, modified. They have huge eyes to receive more visual information, a small mouth so that conversation will stop playing important role, just a couple of fingers, since in the world of computers this is not particularly necessary, etc. Do you think it is possible to change into this?

Is it possible. There was a wonderful paleontologist - Alexey Petrovich Bystrov, he participated in the formation of the St. Petersburg school of paleontologists, and in the 60s he wrote the book “The Past, Present, Future of Man.” Alexey Petrovich was one of the first to imagine what people of the future would look like. But his fantasies had a serious scientific basis. He was not only a paleontologist, but also a military doctor. And during the war, several thousand human skulls passed through his hands. He tried to find out what no longer works for a person, what is a rudiment.

According to Bystrov, in a few thousand years a person will be of small stature, with a small number of teeth - wisdom teeth will disappear first - with a large head, since a lot of information will have to be processed.

Perhaps there will be fewer fingers and the eyes will become larger. Why waste the body's energy on developing the senses if you can perceive all the information visually and feel good?

- Can’t we learn to regenerate? After all, amphibians regenerated their paws, parts of the brain, and eyes.

This is already from the realm of fantasy. Salamanders and some other amphibians could indeed regenerate. But as soon as they moved to land, they complicated their body structure and lost the ability to regenerate. This is some kind of evolutionary fee. The dinosaurs began to bite off pieces of each other, and nothing grew back.

Some scientists are trying to revive mammoths, trying to do this with the help of mice. Is it possible to use some remains to revive dinosaurs, for example with the help of chickens?

If you had asked this five years ago, I would have said that this is absolutely impossible. Now I say that this is 98–99% impossible. Why? First, to reconstruct something, you need DNA. Frozen mammoths retain only fragments of DNA. Even this technically has not yet been decided. When the mammoth is restored with the help of mice or elephants, let molecular biologists think that it will be a breakthrough. Although I don't understand why. Well, it must be cool to have a pet hairy mammoth in your backyard.

About dinosaurs.

Previously, it was believed that nothing organic or complex molecular remained from dinosaurs. Then they did a brilliant study: they dissolved the bone of a tyrannosaurus, and it turned out that something was preserved there. But this is not DNA, these are collagen proteins, these are structural molecules that are in bones.

But this is already great progress. Since something molecular is conserved, maybe we will find something else under certain conditions. There is a minimal probability.

Now the last word techniques in paleontology - the use of a synchrotron. It can be used to study the detailed structure of bones. At one of the conferences, we were given special glasses and told: “Now we will fly through the cavities inside this bone.” And so we flew. This is a completely different level.

- Would you like a pet dinosaur?

No, I wouldn't want a pet dinosaur. I would be more interested to see how it really was. This is not a pile of stones for us; in fact, these are living creatures. We can speculate about how they evolved, speculate that this dinosaur hunted in a pack, but this is all speculation. So we assumed that our Tengrisaurus was 10–12 meters. I would like to know - is this true? And see some details that we cannot even imagine.

Jurassic Park taught us that the most feared of the prehistoric lizards that roamed the Earth was the aggressive predator Tyrannosaurus. But the movie, as often happens, did not tell us the whole truth. Millions of years ago, there were much more terrible predators on the planet, compared to which the Tyrannosaurus would seem like a child's toy! Let's meet these monsters!

This dinosaur was a contemporary of the Tyrannosaurus rex and closely resembled it. However, judging by the remains found, he was much, much larger. Their metabolism, according to scientists, was somewhere between the metabolism of mammals and reptiles, which allowed them to reach such impressive sizes. They were predators, running at a speed of 14 meters per second and hunting smaller dinosaurs, primarily long-necked sauropods and their young, grabbing them with their huge jaws. And, according to paleontologists, they ate everything in their path.

Living in Cretaceous period, Utaraptors resembled miniature T. rexes, but were distinguished by their strength and aggressiveness, which was outstanding even by dinosaur standards. In addition, they were distinguished by extraordinary dexterity - they could jump tens of meters in length and more than four meters in height at once. With forty-centimeter claws on their hind legs, they grabbed the back of their prey. Scientists suspect that they hunted in groups; if so, it would have been easy for them to kill a dinosaur much larger than themselves.

Larger than tyrannosaurs (at least nine meters, not counting the three-meter tail!), these predators of the late Cretaceous period were distinguished by almost complete invulnerability. The reinforced skull bones, crowned with powerful horns, did not leave the slightest chance of attacking him from the front. What is most surprising is that, being truly huge, Carnotaurs were also one of the most fast dinosaurs of his era. No one can hide from such a lizard!

Formally, these predatory marine reptiles were not dinosaurs, but, as contemporaries and competitors of ancient lizards, they cannot but be mentioned in the general series. These sea ​​giants grew up to 17 meters, and 10% of their size was occupied by the head - more precisely, elongated jaws full of sharp teeth. Previously, scientists believed that they moved quite slowly, wriggling their whole body, like sea ​​snakes. But detailed studies of the tails of mosasaurs allowed them to come to the conclusion: in fact, these marine predators moved deftly and quickly, like sharks, and grabbed prey in one lightning-fast movement. Well, anyone could become prey.

One of the largest and most aggressive predators, Spinosaurus had a kind of sail on its back, which made it look twice as large and terrifying. But he caused the main horror in his victims not by this, but by his ability to move quickly both on land and on water. There was no escape from the Spinosaurus anywhere! It ran at about 25 km/h and weighed more than Tyrannosaurus and Gigantosaurus combined. Truly a terrible creature!

In addition to an excellent set of teeth, this dinosaur, according to scientists, had good social skills. Paleontologists suggest that these dinosaurs lived in groups and did not show aggression towards their species. These strong and fast predators, who could run at a speed of 30 km/h, ate everyone else with pleasure. Both herbivores and predatory dinosaurs, not only small, but also quite large in size, became their prey. They themselves differed little in size from tyrannosaurs, but their ability to hunt in groups made them even more dangerous.

Tyranotitan was a relative of Gigantosaurus, and differed from it in only a few features. It had stronger teeth, longer forelimbs and a stockier build. This tough guy ran faster than a tyrannosaurus, and, moreover, paleontologists suggest, he could swim. Yes, there is something to be afraid of!

These monsters were noticeably different from their relatives. For starters, instead of three fingers, like the vast majority of dinosaurs, they boasted four. But the main thing was the claws on the front paws. They reached almost a meter in length! The Theresinosaurus itself grew, on average, up to 10 meters. Judging by their size, it’s unlikely that many contemporary living creatures would want to meet them on a narrow path!

One look at
that creature is enough to make you shudder in horror. A giant bat 10 meters tall, equipped with a long neck and a powerful beak - this can only be seen in nightmares. But Quetzalcoatl also flew no worse bat! With a wingspan reaching up to 50 meters, it is considered the largest of the known to science flying creatures. They hunted fish and small land creatures, paleontologists believe, and did not measure their strength with large ones terrestrial predators, but that doesn’t make their appearance any less nightmarish.

This one is gigantic sea ​​predator- a real monster! Its length reached 30 meters, and when it opened its mouth, it swung open no less than three meters! He can easily eat anyone in his path, and no wonder: the most big catch was about half his size. None of sea ​​creatures couldn't feel safe. Anthropologists suspect that megalodons were the kings of the ocean: their remains are found all over the Earth, from North America to India.

Albertosaurus is one of the ancestors of Tyrannosaurus, and in many ways it is more imperfect than its descendant. Its skull bones are thinner and its bite is weaker. But it also had advantages, and very frightening ones. Firstly, thanks to bacteria specific to this type of dinosaur, its bite was poisonous to any victim except its fellow tribesmen. And secondly, he could rush after prey at a speed of 60 km/h - no worse than a car!

This dinosaur, originally from India, is not yet very well known to scientists: its remains have been found only in fragments. However, it is known that the size and general view it resembled a T. rex, but was most likely heavier and more densely built. If this is so, the earth should have trembled from his steps, and leaves from the trees should have fallen from his roar. The mere thought of such a creature makes one feel uneasy.

Ldin is one of the few dinosaurs about which scientists know for certain that they were covered with dense feathers or fur. In other respects, Yutyrannus resembled a T. rex: nine meters long, a mouth full of teeth and a readiness to devour anyone in its path. That's just a shaggy skin... Brrr!

Another relative of the tyrannosaurus, who managed to surpass it in strength and fury. Acrocanthosaurus was in many ways reminiscent of a T. rex, only its frail front arms were only suitable for picking teeth, while those of Acrocanthosaurus were a full-fledged hunting tool, with which it grabbed and tore apart prey. This allowed him to hunt dinosaurs no less large than himself - and emerge victorious from the fight.

Any person imagines a dinosaur in the form of a ferocious lizard of terrifying size, grinning a huge mouth and destroying everything in its path. Indeed, most ancient reptiles had gigantic sizes that boggle the imagination. This is evidenced by numerous finds of individual fragments and even entire skeletons of fossil lizards. However, not all dinosaurs were giants; among them there were individual species, which nature, as if in mockery, endowed with the growth of a chicken. These tiny creatures darted in numerous flocks among the thickets of relict ferns, trying not to get under the feet of their huge relatives and looking for even smaller prey.

Why did scientists know so little about these amazing little creatures until recently? It was their short stature that played a cruel joke on them. The bones of these dinosaurs were so light and fragile that they did not stand the test of time and have practically not survived to the present day. Only isolated finds allowed these small reptiles to make themselves known.

This lizard has gained fame small predator Jurassic period. Its length did not exceed a meter, and its weight reached only two kilograms. He walked on fast hind legs, had a long tail and a movable head. The nimble dinosaur hunted insects and lizards. A total of three Compsognathus skeletons were found. Two of them were discovered in Europe in the mid-nineteenth and late twentieth centuries, and one skeleton was preserved in Russia and was found as recently as 2010. Thanks to these finds, scientists were able to restore the appearance and habits of the fossil dinosaur.

Nquebasaurus
The only fragment of the skeleton of this lizard was found in 2000 in Africa, near the Sahara Desert. Most likely the remains belonged to a cub. The structural features of these lizards include the presence of long fingers, which made it possible to capture prey. So-called stomach stones are preserved in the intestines, which are usually intended for grinding plant food. This allowed scientists to conclude that Nkwebasaurs were omnivorous. The dinosaur did not exceed a meter in length and was a contemporary of Compsognathus.

Scipionyx
The perfectly preserved skeleton of this lizard was found in Italy at the end of the twentieth century. The skeleton, which belonged to a baby dinosaur, pleased scientists with an extensive base for research, because the fossilized remains preserved the structure of not only the soft tissues of the animal, but also its internal organs. Most likely, the lizard's body was covered with primitive feathers. It walked on its hind legs, supporting its body with its tail. The size of adult individuals, according to scientists, reached two meters. The dinosaur lived in the Cretaceous period and was a predator. In any case, among the undigested food remains, scientists found lizards and fish.

Do you want to know what types of dinosaurs learned to swim underwater?

Most of the huge swimming monsters we know about are called marine reptiles, not dinosaurs. These huge creatures lived in the seas and oceans at the same time that dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

The most famous marine predator is Spinosaurus.

It was the largest sea predatory dinosaur, which we know about. Scientists think that he could live both on land and in water. He could dive underwater and swim, as his limbs had membranes in the shape of the fins of modern drivers. He probably hunted sharks and big fish.

Spinosaurus is the only dinosaur that we have ever learned about. most your life in the water. Another sea ​​dinosaur Ceratosaurus was probably able to swim and hunt crocodiles and large fish underwater.

Swimming reptiles

Spinosaurus wasn't the only one large dinosaur living in the water!

The sea was teeming with large and ferocious reptiles of all shapes and sizes. Here are a few of them:

Nothosaurus Nobu Tamura

The first large ocean reptiles were Nechosaurus, which means "false reptile". They lived in Triassic probably led a lifestyle similar to that of modern seals. There are about a dozen different species, but the most famous of them is Nothosaurus. This animal was about 4 meters (13 feet), with long, webbed toes and may have had a tail.

These reptiles replaced the plesiosaurs that appeared in the early Jurassic period. Most of them had long necks and small heads - their size ranged from 2.5 meters (8 ft) to 14 meters (46 ft) in length.

Pliosaur

The largest of them was the Pliosaurus. This animal had teeth more than 30 centimeters (12 in) long, and the pressure of its jaws was four times more powerful than that of Tyrannosaurus Rex. It is 15 meters (49 ft) long.

Another underwater plesiosaur is the long-eyed Elamosaurus.

Elamosaurus

It had four fins and grew to be about 14 meters (46 ft) long. It was a very slow swimmer and probably tracked large schools of fish while hunting.

Their necks were so long that they could not lift their heads above the water.

Why didn't all dinosaurs know how to swim?

The word "dinosaur" has a very specific meaning.

Science uses the term "dinosaur" to describe a certain type of creature (such as Spinosaurus), but this name does not include marine reptiles or so-called "flying dinosaurs."

One of the reasons for the different classification is different kind their limbs. Dinosaurs had limbs that were located on the ventral part of their bodies, and marine reptiles had limbs that grew on the sides.