Plesiosaurs gained their famous long necks rapidly, researchers have shown.
Their lengthy necks, used for chasing fast-moving fishes, developed quickly over a five million year period around 250 million years ago., and carried out by scientists in China and the UK, show that a species known as pachypleurosaur lengthened their necks mainly by adding new vertebrae.
"Our new reptile, Chusaurus, is a pachypleurosaur, one of a group of small marine predators that were very important in the Triassic. I wasn't sure at first whether it was a pachypleurosaur though because the neck seemed to be too short." "The Early Triassic was a time of recovery and marine reptiles evolved very fast at that time, most of them predators on the shrimps, fishes and other sea creatures. They had originated right after the extinction, so we know their rates of change were extremely rapid in the new world after the crisis."