Ecomorphology of plesiosaur flipper geometry

The Plesiosauria is an extinct group of marine reptiles once common in mesozoic seas. Previous work on plesiosaur hunting styles has suggested that short‐necked, large‐headed animals were pursuit predators, whereas long‐necked, small‐headed animals were ambush predators. This study presents new data on the aspect ratios (ARs) of plesiosaur flippers, and interprets these data via comparison with AR in birds, bats and aircraft. Performance trade‐offs implicit in AR variation are well‐understood in the context of aircraft design, and these trade‐offs have direct ecomorphological analogues in birds and bats. Knowledge of these trade‐offs allows interpretation of variation in plesiosaur AR. By analogy, short‐necked taxa were specialized for manoeuvrability and pursuit, whereas long‐necked taxa were generally specialized for efficiency and cruising. These interpretations agree with previous assessments of maximum swimming speed.

[1]  H. Osborn,et al.  The origin and evolution of life , 1917 .

[2]  H. Osborn.  The origin and evolution of life, on the theory of action, reaction and interaction of energy, by Henry Fairfield Osborn ... with 136 illustrations. , 1917 .

[3]  D. Watson.  Vertebrate Paleontology , 1946, Nature.

[4]  Lionel Casson,et al.  The Ancient Mariners , 1959 .

[5]  S. Welles.  A new species of elasmosaur from the Aptian of Colombia and a review of the Cretaceous plesiosaurs , 1962 .

[6]  M. Taylor.  Plesiosaurs — rigging and ballasting , 1981, Nature.

[7]  D. Brown.  THE ENGLISH UPPER JURASSIC PLESIOSAUROIDEA (REPTILIA) AND A REVIEW OF THE PHYLOGENY AND CLASSIFICATION OF THE PLESIOSAURIA , 1981 .

[8]  Richard Shepherd Shevell,et al.  Fundamentals of Flight , 1983 .

[9]  Stephen J. Godfrey,et al.  Plesiosaur subaqueous locomotion - a reappraisal , 1984 .

[10]  J. Rayner,et al.  Ecological Morphology and Flight in Bats (Mammalia; Chiroptera): Wing Adaptations, Flight Performance, Foraging Strategy and Echolocation , 1987 .

[11]  Jeremy M. V. Rayner,et al.  Form and Function in Avian Flight , 1988 .

[12]  J. A. Massare.  Swimming capabilities of Mesozoic marine reptiles: implications for method of predation , 1988, Paleobiology.

[13]  Robert L. Carroll,et al.  Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution , 1988 .

[14]  Neil Bose,et al.  Measurements of the bodies and flukes of several cetacean species , 1990, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[15]  Michaela A. Taylor,et al.  A plesiosaur from the Linksfield erratic (Rhaetian, Upper Triassic) near Elgin, Morayshire , 1993, Scottish Journal of Geology.

[16]  G. Storrs.  Function and phylogeny in sauropterygian (Diapsida) evolution , 1993 .

[17]  M. Taylor.  Stomach stones for feeding or buoyancy? The occurrence and function of gastroliths in marine tetrapods , 1993 .

[18]  J. A. Massare.  Mechanics and Physiology of Animal Swimming: Swimming capabilities of Mesozoic marine reptiles: a review , 1994 .

[19]  S. Vogel,et al.  Life in Moving Fluids , 2020 .

[20]  F. Robin O'Keefe,et al.  The evolution of plesiosaur and pliosaur morphotypes in the Plesiosauria (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) , 2002, Paleobiology.