Talk:Thalassomedon

Coiling neck

Is the image showing the bent neck accurate? I just read that another plesiosaur, Nichollsia, was unable to coil its neck, and I was wondering if it was actually possible for any plesiosaur to do this. Bob the Wikipedian (talk) 14:29, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

None of the necks look coiled to me. The second one is slightly flexed, but that's not what they mean when they say it couldn't coil, that's referring to the old school illustrations of snake-like, super-flexible necks. They were pretty inflexible, but not completely rigid, even as much as say Tanystropheus. Dinoguy2 (talk) 23:50, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

Skeletal image

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that an Elasmosaurus in the picture? (It looks the picture was taken at the American Museum of Natural History, and I don't recall any Thalassomedon there.)Crimsonraptor (talk) 17:05, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

OH, forget it. I'm going soon and I'll find out then. Crimsonraptor (talk) 18:33, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

Good question, both give results in Google image search in tandem with American Museum, Thalassomedon gets a few more though. FunkMonk (talk) 18:42, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

Brian Switek says Thalassomedon.[1]. Was this specimen/species originally referred to Elasmosaurus? That would account for some of the confusion, especially if the AMNH changed the label at some point. MMartyniuk (talk) 01:25, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Maybe. Last time I went I could've sworn it was an Elasmo. Again, I'll check when I go. Crimsonraptor (talk) 13:21, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

By the way what are the differences between these two genera?--Draco ignoramus sophomoricus (talk) 17:34, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

I'm not sure of all the details but I know Elasmosaurus has a longer neck, with 72 vs 62 cervicals. MMartyniuk (talk) 00:34, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

Also Thalassomedon lived earlier in time (from what I can judge from the article). Crimsonraptor | (Contact me) Dumpster dive if you must 12:34, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Correct. Elasmo is known from the "Hesperornis zone" of the Niobrara formation, and the slightly younger Pierre Shale. Thalasso is quite a bit earlier. I recently updated the fossil range templates for all these guys based on various Carpenter papers that deal with the subject, so they should be up to date. MMartyniuk (talk) 00:12, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

Neck or tail image?

Neck vertebrae

The title of the picture file refers to a tail, while the caption text says it's the vertebra of a neck. Which one is right ? It indeed looks more like a tail. --Agatino Catarella (talk) 06:19, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Looks a bit long for a plesiosaur tail. FunkMonk (talk) 08:21, 16 October 2014 (UTC)