As work continues on finishing up the lower arm portion of my prehistoric sleeve, take a look at my most recent piece – a fossilized plesiosaur skeleton! Interestingly, when humans first found bones of this marine reptile, they didn’t realize that they actually went extinct millions of years ago. Instead they assumed plesiosaurs were still alive, which led to legends of mythical creatures like the Loch Ness monster! 😮
Thriving for nearly 140 million years, plesiosaurs were some of the largest apex predators the Earth’s oceans have ever seen. They preyed primarily upon cephalopods and bony fish and could reach lengths of over 50 feet, but experts still debate the purpose of its long neck. The best explanation to date is that the length of the neck made it possible to surprise schools of fish, with the head arriving before the sight or pressure wave of the body could alert them. Whatever the reason, I’m happy to pay tribute to this uniquely designed creature with this amazingly detailed forearm tattoo!