Question 1

How do you say Futabasaurus?

Accepted Answer

Futabasaurus is pronounced foo-TAH-bah-SORE-us. Break it into four parts: foo, TAH, bah, and SORE-us. The second syllable TAH gets the most stress. The ending SORE-us is the same as in other famous names like Brachiosaurus or Tyrannosaurus. Once you say it a couple of times it rolls off the tongue pretty easily.

Question 2

What does Futabasaurus mean?

Accepted Answer

Futabasaurus means Futaba lizard. The first part of the name comes from the Futaba Group, the rock formation in Fukushima, Japan, where the fossil was discovered. The second part, saurus, is ancient Greek for lizard. The species name suzukii honors Tadashi Suzuki, the high school student who found the fossil in 1968, so the full name loosely means Futaba lizard of Suzuki.

Question 3

Was Futabasaurus a dinosaur?

Accepted Answer

No, Futabasaurus was not a dinosaur. It was a plesiosaur, a type of marine reptile that lived at the same time as the dinosaurs but belonged to a completely different group called Sauropterygia. Plesiosaurs lived entirely in the ocean, breathed air, and had four large flippers instead of legs. Dinosaurs lived on land, while plesiosaurs ruled the seas.

Question 4

How big was Futabasaurus?

Accepted Answer

Futabasaurus was estimated to be around 23 feet, or about 7 meters, in total length. That is roughly as long as a large moving truck. It likely weighed around 1,000 kilograms, similar to a large dairy cow. A huge portion of that length was pure neck, since elasmosaurids like Futabasaurus had necks longer than their own bodies.

Question 5

Where was Futabasaurus found?

Accepted Answer

The fossil of Futabasaurus was found in Fukushima Prefecture in central Japan. Specifically, it came from rocks belonging to the Futaba Group geological formation. The discovery was made along a riverbank in 1968 by a high school student named Tadashi Suzuki. The fossil is now on display at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo.

Question 6

When did Futabasaurus live?

Accepted Answer

Futabasaurus lived approximately 83.6 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period. This was a time when the last of the great dinosaurs were still alive on land, including early relatives of Tyrannosaurus rex. The seas of that era were warm and filled with life, and Futabasaurus was one of the apex predators of the ancient Japanese marine environment.

Question 7

What did Futabasaurus eat?

Accepted Answer

Futabasaurus was a carnivore that almost certainly ate fish, squid, and other small marine animals. Its teeth were sharp and conical, shaped perfectly for gripping slippery prey rather than chewing. Scientists believe elasmosaurids like Futabasaurus used their incredibly long necks to lunge at schools of fish from below, snatching them before they could escape. It probably swallowed prey whole.

Question 8

How long was Futabasaurus's neck?

Accepted Answer

The neck of Futabasaurus was extraordinary, containing more than 70 individual vertebrae. In elasmosaurids as a group, the neck is typically longer than the rest of the body combined. For Futabasaurus, this likely meant the neck accounted for more than half of its total 23-foot body length. This makes it one of the most extreme necks of any animal in the history of life on Earth.

Question 9

Who discovered Futabasaurus?

Accepted Answer

Futabasaurus was discovered in 1968 by a Japanese high school student named Tadashi Suzuki, who spotted the fossil eroding out of a riverbank in Fukushima Prefecture. The animal was formally described and named decades later in 2006 by scientists Tamaki Sato, Yoshikazu Hasegawa, and Makoto Manabe. In a wonderful tribute, the species was named Futabasaurus suzukii in Suzuki's honor.

Question 10

Is Futabasaurus related to the Loch Ness Monster?

Accepted Answer

Futabasaurus is not related to the Loch Ness Monster because the Loch Ness Monster almost certainly does not exist. However, plesiosaurs like Futabasaurus did inspire the popular idea of Nessie. When people describe what they imagine Nessie looks like, they are basically describing a plesiosaur: long neck, big body, flippers. All real plesiosaurs went extinct about 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period.

Question 11

How did Futabasaurus swim?

Accepted Answer

Futabasaurus swam using four large, stiff, wing-like flippers in a motion scientists compare to underwater flying. Rather than wiggling its body like a fish, it rowed through the water using all four flippers in a coordinated pattern, similar to how sea turtles and penguins move today. This method of swimming is called subaqueous flight and is highly efficient for cruising through open water over long distances.

Question 12

Where can I see a Futabasaurus fossil?

Accepted Answer

The original Futabasaurus fossil is housed at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo, Japan. It is considered one of the most complete plesiosaur skeletons ever found in Asia and is a highlight of the museum's paleontology collection. If you ever visit Tokyo, seeing this fossil in person is an incredible experience because you are looking at real bones from an animal that swam Japan's seas 83 million years ago.

Futabasaurus Pronunciation

What does Futabasaurus mean?

Name Roots

Fun Facts

Learn More About Futabasaurus

Related Prehistoric Creatures