It's a process similar to the suction feeding done by some fish and turtles, Rieppel added.Our range from Dr Steve Hunters has grown and we now have available heaps more dino and prehistoric animal skeleton kits!Ĭhoose from an excavation kit, or a skeleton kit and put the bones together yourself to create an awesome prehistoric replica.
"It allowed an almost perfect strike at prey, which usually consisted of elusive fish and squid," Rieppel said. But the researchers said that by suddenly enlarging its throat Dinocephalosaurus could, in effect, suck in and swallow its own pressure wave, giving it the ability to strike without warning. Ordinarily, lunging through water creates a pressure wave that a fish can sense, allowing it to flee. That would have greatly increased the volume of the throat, allowing the animal to lunge forward in the water at prey. It could flex, but not like a snake.Īccording to LaBarbera, contraction of the creature's neck muscles could have rapidly straightened the neck and splayed the neck ribs outward. Those bones give the neck some stiffness, Rieppel explained. Michael LaBarbera of the University of Chicago, a co-author of the report, said the rib-like bones along the side of the neck may also have played a role in hunting.
As Dinocephalosaurus approached in murky water, its prey would have been aware only of the relatively small head, not the full-size profile of a predator.
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