A past predator of the seas may have had a secret weapon: noise-cancelling flippers that helped it sneak up on prey.
Scientists analyzed a fossilized impression of a front flipper ascribed to the large marine reptile Temnodontosaurus. The fossil, which is between 183 million and 181 million years old, reveals that the trailing edge of the flipper was curiously corrugated, rather than smooth, the team reports online July 16 in Nature.
The team then performed computer analyses to simulate how the flipper might have moved through water. Their findings suggest that the strange serrations might have helped manipulate the flow of water around the flipper, dampening the sound of