Scientists have determined how the an ancient "Loch Ness" dinosaur swam in the ocean, which is similar to modern day penguins, where these ancient dinosaurs used to lurk the world's oceans some 66 million years ago.

Researchers consider the massive plesiosaur a mystery as it possesses odd looking, large flippers, where its swimming technique has been unknown until this new study.

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Using computer simulations, scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Nottingham Natural History Museum utilized these to determine how the plesiosaur swam in relation to its measurements, as the creatures can grow up to 15 meters long, where they solely rely on their huge flippers to navigate themselves swiftly underwater.

Scientists have determined how the most effective swimming technique was, with the use of its two front flippers, similar to how a penguin would swim. The back flippers were then used for steering and to stabilize the weight of the creature, where previous theories involve that they were used for speed

The international team was led by Greg Turk from the Georgia Institute of Technology along with paleontologist Adam Smith of Wollaton Hall, Nottingham Natural History Museum where they simulated thousands of techniques and determined that this would be the most possible one.

Further research is still needed however to know more details about how agile the plesiosaurs' rear flippers are. This new study's results reveal that the front limbs are powerful enough to propel the swimming of the creatures where its hind limbs are more passive.

This new study is published in PLOS Computational Biology.

Tagsplesiosaurs, swimming plesiosaurs penguins, Dinosaurs, plesiosaurs swimming technique, loch ness monster