It is possible that giant sea snakes no longer exist in our time. But they, of course, lived on our planet in ancient times. In those distant times, when dinosaurs dominated the land, their relatives, huge marine reptiles, inhabited the ocean depths …
Reptiles or fish?
In 1811, the fossilized skeleton of a water monster was first found during excavations of ancient fossils. Scientists were confused by what they saw: the remains of the discovered creature resembled a fish in shape. However, the animal's dorsal fins were enormous. There were other features as well. These include a long, sharp jaw filled with teeth. In appearance, this prehistoric fossil creature was more like a reptile. In the end, the scientists concluded that this strange creature, which they named ichthyosaurus, was definitely a reptile. Despite the fact that it looked like a fish in shape.
As it turned out later, ichthyosaurs are many related species with the same body shape. One of them, Shonisaurus (Shonisaurus), reached almost 15 meters in length. However, most ichthyosaurs were slightly smaller. The researchers speculate that their behavior was similar to that of modern porpoises. This is one of the suborders of toothed whales. Both porpoises and ichthyosaurs have tear-shaped bodies. Both have a long muzzle and short front fins to control the body. And also a large crescent-shaped tail fin. This allowed the animals to reach speeds of up to 50 km / h.
Other large aquatic reptiles from the dinosaur era were soon found. One of them is a plesiosaur. It had a rounded body with a long tail, a long neck, and four diamond-shaped fins. And in the tiny head of this monster, vile thoughts swarmed, there were razor-sharp teeth.
Like ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs were a class of animals with the same basic design. One of them was Elasmosaurus (Elasmosaurus), which grew up to 12 meters in length. The Elasmosaurus had an extremely long neck. This allowed him to get food for prey at a distance of up to 6 meters.
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The greatest predator
From the family of plesiosaurs emerged perhaps the greatest predator of all time: Liopleurodon (liopleurodon).
This giant reptile was part of the short-necked plesiosaur group. In fact, today it is difficult to estimate how large the lyopleurodons were. But some specimens reached 25 meters in length. And a weight of 100 tons. This is twenty times what the tyrannosaurus weighed. What did Lyopleurodon eat? He ate everything that moved. And that which did not move - moved and ate. In the prehistoric sea, this predator was at the top of the food chain.
Plesiosaurs swam on the surface of the water using a snorkel mask and four fins of almost the same size. None of the living animals use this form of movement. For a long time, scientists could not understand how exactly this works. The earliest theories suggested that animals could use their flippers like oars to "row". However, experiments have shown that it will not work like this.
Further research showed that the plesiosaurs had very strong downward punching muscles. But relatively weak to hit upwards. Therefore, some scientists theorized that these animals swam through the water, pushing one set of fins downward to move forward. At the same time, the other set moved backward to get into position for the next force hit.
All ancient marine reptiles had one thing in common. They all had lungs, not gills like fish. This meant that they had to periodically rise to the surface to take a breath of air. And in this they are also similar to modern marine mammals.
Towards the end of the reign of the dinosaurs, the most ferocious of the ancient marine reptiles appeared in the seas of Earth: the Mosasauridae. Or, in common people, the mosasaurs. These creatures lived after the ichthyosaurs became extinct.
Sea serpent
Mosasaurs, who loved shallow water, had long tubular bodies. The animal's tail was a large fin, and the nose was long and pointed. There were many very sharp teeth in the mouth of the Mososaurus. The four fins of the reptile gave good stability to his body and allowed him to develop a decent speed. The largest of these animals, the Tylosaurus, was 15 meters long. And his skull grew up to one and a half meters. It was a real giant sea serpent.
Nearly all giant marine reptiles became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous. For the company with dinosaurs. However, one of the representatives of this class of animals still survived. It's a crocodile. Although, of course, it is slightly smaller than its counterparts, who lived in prehistoric times, its appearance has hardly changed over the years.
Could any of the creatures described above survive to this day? After all, we very often hear all sorts of mysterious stories about sea snakes and lake monsters. Some messages, such as those received from Loch Ness, are quite intriguing. Indeed, according to the descriptions, in the local lake there is, no more, no less, a whole plesiosaur! Some of the stories told by sailors describe a creature that looks like a mosasaur.
Loch Ness Plesiosaur.
So maybe it's true, somewhere in the dark cold depths, ancient monsters are still hiding? This is unlikely. It won't be easy for creatures of this size to hide. Moreover, they did not like cold water cinematography. On the contrary, they adored the warm shallow coastal areas. Therefore, it is a pity, but now you can only see these magnificent marine life in artistic illustrations …