File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17539377523).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo10amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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Text Appearing Before Image:
THE NEW PLESIOSAi'R 247 ^^
Text Appearing After Image:
AMERICAN PLESlOSAua Elasrri'jsaurui Restoration by Mr. Charles R. Knight. The long neck which was very likely much less flexible than here depicted, probably allowed this reptile to come up stealthily on prey from underneath while swimming near the bottom in shallow seas though a few more or less complete skeletons are preser\e(l in this and other museums in America. Many skeletons, crushed and flattened but splendidly preserved, have been obtained from the cliffs of Lyme Regis and Whitby in England and from the great slate quarries of Holzmaden in Wiirttemberg, and are pre- served in various museums in Ein-ope and America. The clay pits near Peterborough, England, have yielded a large series of Plesiosaur skeletons, most of which are in the British Museum. Eragmentary remains have also been described from India, South America, Australia and Xew Zealand. Some of the Plesiosaurs were of gigantic size, thirty to forty feet in length, but more commonly they were smaller, from six to fifteen feet. The length of neck and relative size of the head varied widely in different genera. The American Elasmosaurus was forty feet long with a small head and a neck twenty-two feet in length. The other extreme was PUosaurus, ecjually huge in l)idk but with the skull nearly five feet long and the neck only a foot and a half. The smaller Plesiosaurs were intermediate between these two extremes, but most of them had small heads. The restoration of Elasmosaurus, made by )VIr. Charles R. Knight under the direction of the late Professor Cope, is based upon a nearly complete skeleton in the Cope collection now in the American Museum. Studies l)y

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