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avatar_Brachiosaurus

Sea reptiles on land

Started by Brachiosaurus, January 14, 2014, 11:46:27 PM

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Brachiosaurus

I know that many of the sea reptiles of the Mesozoic were to large to go on land and not die, but lets say a young pleasiosaur, pliosaur, or mosasaur got beach by a storm or something and was uninjured. Does anyone think they would be able to haul themselves back into the water?


SBell

Quote from: Brachiosaurus on January 14, 2014, 11:46:27 PM
I know that many of the sea reptiles of the Mesozoic were to large to go on land and not die, but lets say a young pleasiosaur, pliosaur, or mosasaur got beach by a storm or something and was uninjured. Does anyone think they would be able to haul themselves back into the water?

A sea turtle is barely able to crawl up far enough to lay eggs. Even small dolphins, when beached, die without help. I don't think there would be much hope for all but the luckiest ones--their musculature and limbs aren't meant for pushing like that.  Maybe a small, very snake-like mosasaur.

But there are people here who could probably speak to physiology better than me.

tyrantqueen

#2
Maybe. But there's the possibility they could be picked off by predators when they're on dry land. If they had been in a storm, they could have also been exhausted by fighting the waves and be unable to defend themselves (and of course they're out of their element)

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