In what cases did plesiosaurs prefer "four-wheel drive" when traveling

Plesiosaurs - water predators that resembled the Loch Ness monster, dominated the Mesozoic era and lived a thousand times longer than humanity at the moment. But scientists are still trying to understand how these ancient monsters were able to conquer the entire planet. Everyone agrees that they moved on water - their massive, turtle-like flippers would not be good for flying or moving on land. But the researchers cannot agree on whether the plesiosaurs used all four limbs or most of the work was done by two forelimbs. To understand this, scientists even made a robot copy of ancient creatures. And they seem to have found the answer.

Explained on the flippers

Unfortunately (or maybe, fortunately), the time machine has not yet been invented. Therefore, it is rather difficult to return to the past and see how the plesiosaurs actually moved. Scientists have built a model based on a pair of plesiosaurus fossils from the Somerset museums in England and Bristol in the USA. They especially relied on a skeleton from the Somerset County Museum, which preserved the flippers of an ancient creature. The authors of the experiment also used X-ray images of a turtle, sea lions and penguins to see how modern animals cope with movement problems.

Then a 3D printer printed plastic models of ancient dinosaur limbs. Scientists tried different variations of movement in order to understand which would be the most effective. It turned out that the power of the flippers' push increased by 60 percent, and the movement efficiency by 40 percent when the robot-plesiosaurus used all four limbs.

Four-wheel drive

What does this mean? Interestingly, no waterfowl today use this 4WD strategy. So if scientists hadn’t found such a feature in plesiosaurs, they would not have known at all that such a technology is possible. It is possible that the method of plesiosaurs will be more effective than the technologies that people developed.

Moreover, these results contradict the 2015 study, in which it was found that plesiosaurs were mainly moved by two front flippers, and the rear fins were used for maneuvering and stability. Then the scientists developed a virtual plesiosaur and placed it in virtual water. Although real physical research is more credible, the final word on plesiosaur swimming technique has not yet been said.

In addition, when using all four limbs, ancient monsters could lose balance, paleontologists say. But sometimes speed was more important than maneuvering - when it came to hunting ancient squids or rescuing from giant sharks. Be that as it may, the strategy of plesiosaurs allowed them to dominate the oceans for millions of years.