ArticleCommunications biology2022
Large size in aquatic tetrapods compensates for high drag caused by extreme body proportions.
Article in Communications biology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- ENHYDROSS: A New Mechanistic Model Supports the Trans-Oceanic Dispersal Capability of Terrestrial Vertebrates.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Article
- Earliest long-necked sauropterygian Lijiangosaurus yongshengensis and plasticity of vertebral evolution in sauropterygian marine reptiles.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Predicting body length and assessing the shape of tail-propelled Mesozoic marine reptiles.Biology letters · 2025Article
- Article
- Rapid neck elongation in Sauropterygia (Reptilia: Diapsida) revealed by a new basal pachypleurosaur from the Lower Triassic of China.BMC ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- First filter feeding in the Early Triassic: cranial morphological convergence between Hupehsuchus and baleen whales.BMC ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Turtle body size evolution is determined by lineage-specific specializations rather than global trends.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Various Mesozoic marine reptile lineages evolved streamlined bodies and efficient lift-based swimming, as seen in modern aquatic mammals. Ichthyosaurs had low-drag bodies, akin to modern dolphins, but plesiosaurs were strikingly different, with long hydrofoil-like limbs and greatly variable neck and trunk proportions. Using computational fluid dynamics, we explore the effect of this extreme morphological variation. We find that, independently of their body fineness ratio, plesiosaurs produced more drag than ichthyosaurs and modern cetaceans of equal mass due to their large limbs, but these differences were not significant when body size was accounted for. Additionally, necks longer than twice the trunk length can substantially increase the cost of forward swimming, but this effect was cancelled out by the evolution of big trunks. Moreover, fast rates in the evolution of neck proportions in the long-necked elasmosaurs suggest that large trunks might have released the hydrodynamic constraints on necks thus allowing their extreme enlargement.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.