Scientists for two centuries have suspected that prehistoric marine reptiles like this one, named Tanystropheus, possessing very long necks were highly vulnerable to such attacks. A fresh examination of Tanystropheus fossils unearthed in Switzerland decades ago on a mountain called Monte San Giorgio has provided the first unambiguous evidence to demonstrate it.
The neck of Tanystropheus was three times longer than its torso. Useful in hunting, extreme neck elongation was common among marine reptiles spanning about 175 million years during the age of dinosaurs. But this came with a price: an obvious weak spot for predation. "These very dramatic examples of predator-prey interaction are extremely rare in fossils, and they give us an insight into how these animals lived together.
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