A fossil find from southern Germany is causing a stir in palaeontology: researchers have identified a previously unknown marine reptile in the world-famous Holzmaden fossil deposit. The animal, which swam through the primeval seas around 183 million years ago, has an unusually long neck structure and is now being described as a separate genus and species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The marine predator reached a length of about 3.5 metres during its lifetime. Its most striking feature is a neck measuring more than one metre, which presumably played an important role in hunting. Together with palaeontologist Daniel Madzia from the Polish Academy of Sciences, he has examined the find in detail and published the results in the scientific journal PeerJ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The skeleton was discovered in 1978 in the Posidonia shale near Holzmaden, around 35 kilometres southeast of Stuttgart, and has been in the scientific collection of the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart ever since. It is rarely accessible to the public, except at special events such as open days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For a long time, the find was considered too incomplete to be assigned to a new species. Only modern examination methods and a better understanding of the growth processes of plesiosaurs have now enabled a more precise analysis. In the process, Sachs and Madzia discovered a number of unique anatomical features that justify its classification as a new genus. They named the animal Plesionectes longicollum, which translates as \u2018early swimmer with a long neck\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The head and cervical vertebrae display characteristic combinations of features that are not found in any other known plesiosaur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Holzmaden is famous among palaeontologists worldwide: the slate deposits there have already yielded numerous spectacular finds, including several species of plesiosaur. For Madzia, the new discovery is an important contribution to our understanding of marine ecosystems during a key phase of Earth’s history: \u2018Every new find expands our picture of the biodiversity and evolutionary developments of the Jurassic period.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The description of Plesionectes longicollum sheds light on another chapter in the history of the primordial oceans and shows that even fossils that are decades old can still hold scientific surprises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A fossil find from southern Germany is causing a stir in palaeontology: researchers have identified a previously unknown marine reptile in the world-famous Holzmaden fossil deposit. The animal, which swam through the primeval seas around 183 million years ago, has an unusually long neck structure and is now being described as a separate genus and […]\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en"],"yoast_head":"\n