Elasmosaurus

sea reptile · long neck · cretaceous · ancient ocean

Super long neck. Elasmosaurus was a plesiosaur, a type of sea reptile, and had an incredibly long neck that it used to snatch fish and other sea creatures by surprise.

Headless skeleton error. When paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope first reconstructed the skeleton in 1868, he accidentally put the skull at the wrong end, on the tail. His rival Othniel Charles Marsh made fun of him for this mistake, and it became famous in the "Bone Wars" between the two scientists.

Ancient ocean dweller. Elasmosaurus lived about 80 to 77 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period in the shallow seas covering North America.

Rare fossil. Only one incomplete skeleton of Elasmosaurus is definitely known from the fossil record, making it a precious window into ancient marine life.

Kansas discovery. The first Elasmosaurus skeleton was discovered in 1867 near Fort Wallace, Kansas, and became one of the most important marine reptile fossils ever found.