Computer simulations of plesiosaur swimming

[DinoToyForum]

I was recently involved in a cool study investigating plesiosaur swimming. Here's the open-access paper published yesterday:
http://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004605

Here are some gifs I created showing some of the simulations (check out the paper for the full videos showing all the simulations):



Here's one of many news stories about the study:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35115195

Here's my personal commentary on the research:
http://plesiosauria.com/news/index.php/investigating-plesiosaur-swimming-using-computer-simulations/

[Crackington]

I saw this on the BBC website yesterday and thought well done! My girls saw the animation and both were amazed that they "flew" through the seas. Great stuff!

[Dinomike]

Very cool and interesting too!

[Halichoeres]

Baller!

[Tyto_Theropod]

Interesting. I love movement studies like this one.

[ChubbyTaco]

Recently, Everything Dinosaur published an article on a fascinating piece of research published in the academic journal "PLOS Computational Biology" which focused on how plesiosaurs propelled themselves through the water.  The paper had been written by researchers at the School of Interactive Computing, (Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA) with the collaboration of Dr. Adam Smith (Nottingham Natural History Museum, Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire).  A three-dimensional model of a plesiosaur based on the Early Jurassic Meyerasaurus was used to examine how this marine reptile might have swam.  The computer simulations implied a forelimb dominated approach with the hind-limbs having a likely role not in active locomotion but in manoeuvring and stability.

The link to the topic - http://blog.everythingdinosaur.co.uk/blog/_archives/2015/12/21/the-swimming-speed-of-plesiosaurs.html
Link to the previous topic - http://blog.everythingdinosaur.co.uk/blog/_archives/2015/12/18/computer-simulations-penguins-plesiosaurs-and-underwater-flight.html

Swimming Speeds Recorded in the 3-D Study

[DinoToyForum]

As one of the researchers involved in the study, I responded to that Everything Dinosaur article to clarify that the swimming speeds were used only as a measure of limb-stroke/gait efficiency. Apart from that, they are basically meaningless and certainly not the maximum swimming speeds. You can see my comments, which were quoted in the Everything Dinosaur article.

[also, just merged this topic with the existing topic on this study  ]

[Komodo]

It is very enthusiastic to see the research progress regarding their locomotion. The results are very interesting. At a time I'love to see the potential, even subtles, differences depending the kind of plesiosaurs. Are we sure about the physically possible range of the movements ? I'm surprised to see how wide would be the range of the forelimbs. It seemed to me they couldn't raise their flippers higher than their body.

Top speed in pliosaurs would be great to determine as well.

I always wonder why no other truly aquatic lifeform has developped this body plan (sea turtles and pinnipeds being partly terrestrial).

Oddly, this video and analysis by a novelist have been released almost at the same time as the new study.

https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/9611718-proper-plesiosaur-swimming-methods-by-max-hawthorne

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoXvI9gmHRY

The text looks like an abstract, maybe he's gonna submit it for publication.
Not sure about his qualifications and conclusions, that sounds quite interesting but less rigorous and more sheer guess than the PLOS publication (and I perceive a bit of bellitlement toward professionnal researchers though some amateurs are certainly skillful..).