P
Patriot Games
Guest
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,314964,00.html
Prehistoric 'Sea Monster' Found on Arctic Island
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
OSLO, Norway - Remains of a bus-sized prehistoric "monster" reptile found
on a remote Arctic island may be a new species never before recorded by
science, researchers said Tuesday.
Initial excavation of a site on the Svalbard Islands in August yielded the
remains, teeth, skull fragments and vertebrae of a reptile estimated to
measure nearly 40 feet long, said Joern Harald Hurum of the University of
Oslo.
"It seems the monster is a new species," he told The Associated Press.
The reptile appears be the same species as another sea predator whose
remains were found nearby on Svalbard last year.
His team described those 150-million-year-old remains as belonging to a
short-necked plesiosaur measuring more than 30 feet - "as long as a bus ...
with teeth larger than cucumbers."
The short-necked plesiosaur, or pliosaur, was a voracious reptile often
compared to the Tyrannosaurus rex of the oceans.
Click here for the University of Oslo's page on the fossil find (in
English):
http://www.nhm.uio.no/pliosaurus/english/index.html
Mark Evans, a plesiosaur expert at the Leicester City Museums in Britain,
said he did not know enough about the Norwegian find to comment on it
specifically. But he said new types of the sea reptiles are being found
regularly.
"We are regularly seeing new species of plesiosaurs popping up - in a way
because, in the past 10 or 15 years, there has been what we call a
renaissance in plesiosaur research," Evans said by telephone.
Hurum said the team had only managed to excavate a 3-meter (yard) area of
the find. The Norwegian-led team plans to present more detailed findings
early next year, and return to Svalbard, 300 miles north of Norway's
mainland, to excavate further next year.
Prehistoric 'Sea Monster' Found on Arctic Island
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
OSLO, Norway - Remains of a bus-sized prehistoric "monster" reptile found
on a remote Arctic island may be a new species never before recorded by
science, researchers said Tuesday.
Initial excavation of a site on the Svalbard Islands in August yielded the
remains, teeth, skull fragments and vertebrae of a reptile estimated to
measure nearly 40 feet long, said Joern Harald Hurum of the University of
Oslo.
"It seems the monster is a new species," he told The Associated Press.
The reptile appears be the same species as another sea predator whose
remains were found nearby on Svalbard last year.
His team described those 150-million-year-old remains as belonging to a
short-necked plesiosaur measuring more than 30 feet - "as long as a bus ...
with teeth larger than cucumbers."
The short-necked plesiosaur, or pliosaur, was a voracious reptile often
compared to the Tyrannosaurus rex of the oceans.
Click here for the University of Oslo's page on the fossil find (in
English):
http://www.nhm.uio.no/pliosaurus/english/index.html
Mark Evans, a plesiosaur expert at the Leicester City Museums in Britain,
said he did not know enough about the Norwegian find to comment on it
specifically. But he said new types of the sea reptiles are being found
regularly.
"We are regularly seeing new species of plesiosaurs popping up - in a way
because, in the past 10 or 15 years, there has been what we call a
renaissance in plesiosaur research," Evans said by telephone.
Hurum said the team had only managed to excavate a 3-meter (yard) area of
the find. The Norwegian-led team plans to present more detailed findings
early next year, and return to Svalbard, 300 miles north of Norway's
mainland, to excavate further next year.
