How prehistoric aquatic reptiles known as plesiosaurs utilized their four large flippers to swim through the ocean has long been the subject of debate in the scientific community.

Now, a team of specialists funded by the National Science Foundation discovered that these marine reptiles actually zoomed through the water with ease, swimming in a technique that is similar to that of penguins.

Plesiosaurs swam through the seas at the same time that dinosaurs roamed the Earth, which is about 200 million to 66 million years ago. Scientists postulate that these animals went extinct at that time, too.

Aside from their large flippers, these aquatic reptiles had incredibly long necks and grew up to 8 and 46 feet long. Fascinatingly enough, Scotland's world-famous mythical Loch Ness monster Nessie is often depicted as a plesiosaur.

The Plesiosaur's Incredible Swimming Strategy

Led by scientist Greg Turk, the group of experts developed a computer model showing how the plesiosaur moved through the water. They conducted a series of simulations with this model.

To find the most effective swimming strategy, the team based their computer model on one of the kinds of plesiosaurs that lived 180 million years ago - the Meyerasaurus.

By flapping its two front flippers up and down in the same way that turtles and penguins swim, the Meyerasaurus produced the most incredible swimming strategy with the fastest forward speed.

At the start of the study, Turk said he first thought animals that used two flippers were fast, while animals that used four flippers were faster. After seeing the results, he realized that the animal's two front flippers actually do all the work.

Strange Back Flippers

Turk said that was what unexpected about their discovery is that no matter what motion they simulated for the animal's back flippers, these do not really affect the aquatic reptile's forward motion.

He said the back flippers might have been used by plesiosaurs to steer themselves and provide stability to their large body.

Adam Smith, one of the researchers of the study, said the back flippers might have also added something extra to the animal's movements.

"Maybe the rear flippers moved together with the front flippers occasionally to provide an unsustainable burst of thrust, to lunge at a prey, for example," said Smith.

Meanwhile, Smith said that the manner of how these aquatic reptiles swam was a mystery for 200 years because it was not easy to determine how an extinct animal with such a unique anatomy moved.

The team's findings are to be featured in the journal PLOS Computational Biology.