エラスモサウルス　Elasmosaurus　オーストラリア恐竜大陸

Elasmosaurus

分類所属：
Euryapsida / Sauropterygia / Plesiosauria / Family: Elasmosauridae
/ First Discovered: 1868 / Found: North America; USA
/ Length: 14m / Weight: 25t
/ Food: Fish, sea life / Young: Live young
/ Lived: Late Cretaceous 70-65 mya

恐竜説明：
Elasmosaurus was a plesiosaur. Unlike Kronosaurus, it had a small head, a very long neck and a large, barrel shaped body. It was a gigantic creature; the mysterious Loch Ness Monster is thought to be of similar proportions and may well have been modelled upon it.
The neck accounted for half the dinosaur's total length and was made up of 75 or 76 vertebrae. In comparison, humans have only seven. It was very flexible, although it would have been held in a straight line when the Elasmosaurus was swim¬ming quickly. Plesiosaur paddles were huge structures, with the fin¬gers and toes again accounting for half of their total length. Like turtles, plesiosaurs 'flew' through water, but instead of rotating their paddles in a figure of eight movement, as turtles do, they used more of a rowing action.
Whereas Kronosaurus lunged at its food, Elasmosaurus would have cruised among shoals of fish and ammonites, picking off anything that swam within range. its small head was armed with numerous conical teeth that effectively interlocked to give greater grip. The Elasmosaurus was the longest plesiosaur known from the fossil record.
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