Body size is the key to understanding many biological properties. Sizes of extinct animals
are usually estimated from body reconstructions since their masses can not be weighed …

The evolution and function of the long neck in plesiosaurs, and how the problems
associated with stiffness or flexibility were overcome during feeding, or rapid swimming …

This paper investigates trends in the evolution of body size and shape in the Plesiosauria, a
diverse clade of Mesozoic marine reptiles. Using measures from well-preserved plesiosaur …

Invasion of the open ocean by tetrapods represents a major evolutionary transition that
occurred independently in cetaceans, mosasauroids, chelonioids (sea turtles), ichthyosaurs …

Previously known from the earliest Jurassic to the end of the Cretaceous, plesiosaurs are
among the most common and best studied Mesozoic marine reptiles. Despite a history of …

The dichotomy between short-necked, large-headed “pliosaurs” and long-necked, small-
headed “plesiosaurs” has formed the basis of plesiosaur taxonomy for over one hundred …

Plesiosaurs were the longest-surviving group of secondarily marine tetrapods, comparable
in diversity to today's cetaceans. During their long evolutionary history, which spanned the …

Body size and center of mass of an organism have an influence on ecology, physiology, and
locomotion. Vertebrates are typically preserved in the fossil record only as bones, so …

Plesiosaurs are one of the longest-ranging tetrapod groups in the Mesozoic and underwent
a major adaptive radiation in the Late Triassic/Early Jurassic, so they are an ideal clade to …

The Plesiosauria is a group of marine reptiles that originated at the base of the Jurassic and
went extinct in the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. Plesiosaur fossils have been known …