The Not-So-Massive Liopleurodon
In The Not-So-Massive Liopleurodon, naturalist Steve Backshall discovers what scientists got wrong about this aquatic dinosaur’s size and just how that happened. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Deadly Dinosaurs, a documentary series in which host Steve Backshall is on the hunt for the deadliest animals to have walked the Earth — dinosaurs — exploring features of several species and putting their abilities to the test to reveal the raw power of these creatures.
Lesson Express
Q: How did Liopleurodon move through the water?
A: It used its sense of smell.
Q: How large did scientists think Liopleurodon was and what size did it turn out to be?
A: Scientists originally estimated that Liopleurodon was around 82 feet (25 meters), but it actually turned out to be closer to 20 feet (6 meters) long.
Q: How did the scientists get Liopleurodon’s size so wrong?
A: They had to put the skeleton together with small fossils and make an educated guess on how it fit together. It turned out the original guess was incorrect.
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