Tanystropheus

Name: Tanystropheus‭ (‬Long strap‭)‬.‭
Phonetic: Tan-ee-stro-fee-us‭ .
Named By: Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer‭ ‬-‭ ‬1852.
Synonyms: Tribelesodon,‭ ‬Procerosaurus.
Classification: Chordata,‭ ‬Reptilia,‭ ‬Diapsida,‭ ‬Archosauromorpha,‭ ‬Prolacertiformes,‭ ‬Tanystrophidae.
Species: T.‭ ‬conspicuous (type),T. antiquus, T. longobardicus, T. hydroides.‭
Type: Carnivore.
Size: 6‭ ‬meters long.
Known locations: Europe,‭ ‬Middle East and China.
Time period: Mid Triassic.
Fossil representation: Several Skeletons,‭ ‬many preserved juveniles from Besano Formationin in Italy.




       Taking up half of its total body length,‭ ‬Tanystropheus’s neck is almost inconceivable.‭ ‬Indeed,‭ ‬when Francesco Bassani discovered Tanystropheus remains in‭ ‬1886‭ (‬although he named it Tribelesodon‭)‬,‭ ‬he conceived the extra long neck vertebrae as the wing bones of a pterosaur.‭ ‬It was not until later that the mistake was realised and Tribelesodon became a synonym of Tanystropheus.
       Analysis of Tanystropheus remains and the areas that they are recovered from strongly suggests a life spent on the Triassic shorelines.‭ ‬The teeth are adapted in a way that would enable them to easily snatch marine prey like fish,‭ ‬and the elongated neck would have given it significant each over and under the water.‭ ‬The legs however appear to be more suited for terrestrial locomotion.‭ ‬An interesting feature is that the front legs are shorter than the rear,‭ ‬suggesting that Tanystropheus may have pitched itself forward at the water’s edge for feeding.
       For hunting strategy,‭ ‬it is possible that Tanystropheus visited tidal pools that would have been re-stocked with fresh prey items at high tide that would then in turn be trapped in the pools when the tide receded.‭ ‬This would provide a naturally trapped and easily sought out food supply.‭
       In‭ ‬2006‭ ‬Dr.‭ ‬Silvio Renesto discovered a specimen in Switzerland that appears to display the impressions of soft tissue.‭ ‬One of the main discoveries here is a skin impression that shows Tanystropheus did not have overlapping scales.‭ ‬The other discovery is a dark impression that suggests that there was a significant development of muscle to the rear of Tanystropheus.‭ ‬This counter weight of muscle would have shifted the centre of mass back allowing the neck to move in a more balanced manner.‭ ‬It may have also had a secondary function of giving Tanystropheus great strength to grip onto shoreline rocks.




Further reading
- Übersicht über die Reptilien der Trias" [Review of the Reptilia of the Triassic] - F. von Huene - 1902.
- A new specimen of Tanystropheus (Reptilia Protorosauria) from the Middle Triassic of Switzerland and the ecology of the genus - S. Renesto - 2005.
- Tanystropheus longobardicus (Reptilia Protorosauria): Re-interpretations of the anatomy based on new specimens from the Middle Triassic of Besano (Lombardy, northern Italy). - Memorie della Societa Italiana di Scienze Naturali e del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano. 35 (3). - Stefania Nossotti - 2007.
- Tanystropheus cf. T. Longobardicus from the early Late Triassic of Guizhou Province, southwestern China. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 30 (4): 1082–1089. - Olivier Rieppel, Da-Yong Jiang, Nicholas C. Fraser, Wei-Cheng Hao, Ryosuke Motani, Yuan-Lin Sun & Zuo-Yu Sun - 2009.
- Land or water: using taphonomic models to determine the lifestyle of the Triassic protorosaur Tanystropheus (Diapsida, Archosauromorpha). - Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments. 98 (2): 243–258. - S. R. Beardmore & H. Furrer - 2017.
- Evidences for a semi aquatic life style in the triassic diapsid reptile tanystropheus. - Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia (Research in Paleontology and Stratigraphy). 124 (1): N.1 - Silvio Renesto & Franco Saller - 2018.
- A taxonomic revision of the genus Tanystropheus (Archosauromorpha, Tanystropheidae). - Palaeontologia Electronica. 22.3.80. - Stephan N.F. Spiekmann & Torsten M. Scheyer - 2019.
- Aquatic Habits and Niche Partitioning in the Extraordinarily Long-Necked Triassic Reptile Tanystropheus. - Current Biology. 0 (19): 3889–3895.e2. - Stephan N. F. Spiekman, James M. Neenan, Nicholas C. Fraser, Vincent Fernandez, Olivier Rieppel, Stefania Nosotti & Torsten M. Scheyer - 2020.

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