An international team of paleontologists spanning China, the United States, and several European institutions has identified fossil remains belonging to a long-necked marine reptile known as dinocephalosaurus, which lived roughly 250 million years ago. The creature’s appearance evokes an eastern dragon, with a sinuous, snake-like neck and a body adapted to life in shallow seas. The discovery is detailed in Earth and Environmental Science: Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (EESTRSE).
Fossil fragments were unearthed in the Guangling Formation, located in Guizhou Province, China. The fieldwork spanned a decade, during which researchers carefully recovered scattered bones. When the assembly was complete, scientists could identify the specimen with high confidence, painting a clearer picture of its anatomy and lifestyle.
Measurements show dinocephalosaurus reached up to three meters in height, with more than half of its length devoted to the neck, about 1.7 meters. Inhabitants of the shallow seas, these reptiles pursued fish and cephalopods, often relying on stealth and ambush to secure prey.
What set dinocephalosaurus apart was its unusually elongated neck and the large number of vertebrae in both the neck and torso. Stefan Spiekmann, a curator and long-necked marine reptile expert from the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart, notes that these animals gave birth to live young rather than laying eggs, a reproductive strategy that aligned with several other marine reptiles of their era.
Despite looking superficially similar to other long-necked marine reptiles, the dinocephalosaurus is not closely related to plesiosaurs, another famed group of long-necked swimmers. Plesiosaurs emerged about 40 million years later, marking a separate branch in marine reptile evolution. The new findings help clarify the diversity of necked marine life during the early Mesozoic era and illustrate how similar forms evolved independently in response to shared ecological pressures.
Earlier research had already highlighted Asia as home to some of the era’s largest dinosaurs, adding context to the region’s rich fossil record during the Cretaceous period. The current study adds a remarkable chapter to that story, shedding light on the coastal ecosystems that supported these extraordinary reptiles long before the present day.