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.

A study of an ancient sea reptile's swimming technique could lead to more manoeuvrable and efficient flipper-driven submarines, scientists believe. Researchers used a robot in a water tank to investigate the unique four-flipper swimming technique of the extinct plesiosaur, a ferocious ocean predator. Their results raise the prospect of copying a design concept nature came up with more than 100 million years ago to power submersible vehicles. A study of plesiosaur propulsion could lead to more manoeuvrable and efficient flipper-driven submarines, scientists believe. Plesiosaurs used two near-identical pairs of flippers to propel themselves through the water.