It has been described as a snake threaded through the body of a turtle, and some imaginative people think there’s one living in Loch Ness.
The plesiosaur, a marine reptile that lived 160 million years ago, looked like nothing alive today, with a neck that was some 2 metres long, the length of the body and tail combined. Why it needed such a long neck has been a mystery, but now Leslie Noè of the Sedgwick Museum in Cambridge, UK, has an answer.
![](https://c.files.bbci.co.uk/11CE8/production/_126063927_00d2162c-990b-4c54-8d75-6005d343e000.jpg)
Plesiosaurs used their long necks to reach down and feed …