Scientists first thought that they swam close to the surface of the water (as the picture on the left shows). This way they could stick their head above the water and look down on fish. But because their eyes are placed facing slightly upwards, this is probably not true. They probably swam completely underwater and used their long necks to dart their heads towards fish. Plesiosaurs were very successful, and there were many types.

They ate fish, squids, molluscs and other small sea creatures. Recently, scientists have found evidence that the Plesiosaurs may have also been "bottom-feeders". That is they would feed from the bottom of the sea - on things like clams and snails.

They lived from the early Jurassic to the end of the Cretaceous period. That is from about 220 million years to about 65 million years ago. Plesiosaurs, like dinosaurs, lived in the Mesozoic era.

The Plesiosaur is not actually a dinosaur, but rather a large swimming reptile.

is Greek for "nearer to the reptiles". This name is given to this creature because it is something in-between reptiles and fish.

Some people think that they could climb out of the water and crawl around on land, like seals. But other scientists disagree with this. Either way they would have spent a lot of their time under water. And because they were air-breathing animals, they would have to come up to the water surface for air every now and then.

The most famous mysteries around these creatures is the Loch Ness Monster. There are a lot of stories of some large creature in the lake called Loch Ness in Scotland. Most descriptions of the monster are close to what the Plesiosaurs must have looked like. Some of the sightings have been proven to be a hoax and at present there are not scientific proof of the existence of the animal but many people believe in it. The study and search for animals which fall outside of contemporary zoological catalogues has the name of Cryptozoology.

In 1977, some Japanese fishermen off the coast of New Zealand found a very rotten carcass of some large creature with flippers. It was so rotten that it was very hard to tell anything from it, but some people believed that it was a Plesiosaur. Scientists however ascertained it was a certain type of shark, fallen to bits because it was so rotten.