Fig. 5: Evolutionary trends of neck proportions and body size in Sauropterygia and their implications for the drag-related costs of swimming.
From: Large size in aquatic tetrapods compensates for high drag caused by extreme body proportions
a Bivariate plot of the length of trunk and the neck ratio of 79 sauropterygian taxa. Polygons in different colours show area occupied by the main sauropterygian groups. The functional trends describing the effect of each axis are based on results from flow simulations. On the top of this graph, a univariate plot shows the distribution and mean values of trunk length for each group. b, c Phenograms showing the disparity of trunk length (b) and neck ratio (c) in sauropterygians through time. The branches corresponding to basal Plesiosauria (including Rhomaleosauridae and Plesiosauridae), thalassophonean pliosaurs, polycotylids and elasmosaurs are highlighted (colour coding as in a). d, e Sauropterygian trees showing the evolutionary rates for trunk length (d) and neck ratio (e) represented by colour gradient (see Supplementary Fig. 5 for an alternative analysis to 5d using the log10-transformed trunk length). Consensus trees show average results from analyses of 20 cal3-dated trees (see Supplementary Figs. 4 and 6 for analysis on Hedman-dated trees). Rates are based on the mean scalar evolutionary rate parameter.
