The odd swimming style of plesiosaurs decoded by a robot

The plesiosaur is long extinct, but thanks to a biomechanical engineer, it has been reincarnated -- as a robot. This new so-called "robosaur" reveals the secret behind the animal's odd but powerful swimming style, which could inspire alternatives to boat and submarine propellers. Scientists have speculated over the swimming ability of plesiosaurs for decades. Long-necked and round-bodied, the plesiosaur lived 203 million years ago during the age of dinosaurs, but it was a marine reptile, more closely related to lizards and snakes. "There has been no other animal that swims like this, ever," Luke Muscutt, a biomechanical engineer at the University of Southampton in the U.K., told NewsHour. A fish propels itself by swishing its tail side to side, while a dolphin flaps its tail up and down.