Tentacles, pointy teeth and the T-rex of the sea: the Natural History Museum on beasts that once ruled the oceans

The skeleton of a 23ft plesiosaur: ‘Its long neck allowed its head to get a head start on its body, so it could sneak up on prey,’ says Kate Whittington of the Natural History Museum. Photograph: Lucie Goodayle/NHM Photo Unit

Deep in the bowels of the Natural History Museum, Kate Whittington is standing in front of the skeleton of a 23ft plesiosaur, one of prehistoric Earth’s most fearsome marine reptiles, explaining how it would eat us for dinner, were it still around today.

“Its long neck allowed its head to get a head start on its body,” says the museum’s exhibition and interpretation manager. “So it could sneak up on prey and grab it [with its mouth] before its body and flippers created a disturbance in the water.”