News Paleontology

Big Gulp? Neck ribs may have given aquatic beast unique feeding style

By Sid Perkins

- More than 2 years ago

The fossilized neck bones of a 230-million-year-old sea creature have features suggesting that the animal’s snakelike throat could flare open and create suction that would pull in prey. Such a feeding strategy has never before been proposed for an ancient aquatic reptile.

THAT’S A STRETCH. Features of the fossilized neck bones of Dinocephalosaurus suggest that the creature, at least 3 meters long, captured its prey by creating water suction as it struck.