Researchers surprised: what a 183 million-year-old dinosaur really looked like revealed

Researchers at Lund University, Sweden, and colleagues have examined the soft tissue of a fossilised plesiosaur for the first time and made a surprising discovery.

Plesiosaurs have been known for 200 years

Plesiosaurs are marine dinosaurs that had snake-like necks and sea turtle-like bodies. They have been found all over the world and have been known for 200 years. 

But now, researchers have uncovered new information about this Jurassic dinosaur after examining a well-preserved plesiosaur skeleton they discovered.

Skeleton found in Germany

A plesiosaur skeleton unearthed near Holcmaden, Germany, has become a scientific sensation. 

The discovery of extremely rare fossilised soft tissues in its tail and one of its fins is a unique discovery that provides new insights into these ancient marine reptiles.

"The surrounding rock was carefully removed from the fossil. We then used a variety of microscopic and spectrometric techniques to analyse the fossilised soft tissues in detail for the first time," said Miguel Marx, a PhD student at Lund University, about the progress of the study. 

What have researchers discovered?

Until now, plesiosaurs, like other marine reptiles, were thought to be completely scaleless.

But this new study reveals an unexpected fact. It turns out that plesiosaur skin was mosaically covered with both smooth scaly areas and scaly areas.

The researchers believe that these scales not only provided additional protection, but also improved swimming abilities. 

They may have helped the plesiosaurs to move more easily and to protect themselves from injury as they glided quickly across the rough seabed in pursuit of prey.