Fossil sea monster found

[Captain Planet!]

// '); // ]]>


Fossil sea monster big enough to "bite a car"

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent, Reuters
2 hours ago //

OSLO — The fossil of a 15 meter (50 ft) long "sea monster" found in Arctic Norway was the biggest of its kind known to science with dagger-like teeth in a mouth large enough to bite a small car, researchers said on Wednesday.
The 150-million year old dinosaur-era pliosaur, a fierce marine reptile, was about five meters (16 ft 5 in) longer than the previous pliosaur record holder found in Australia.
"It's a new species and the biggest proven pliosaur," Joern Hurum, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in Oslo who led the expedition to dig up the fossil on the archipelago of Svalbard 1,300 km (800 miles) from the North Pole.
"A small car could fit inside its mouth," he told Reuters, adding the lower jaw was about three meters (10 ft) long.
"Something like a Morris Minor would fit perfectly."
The Museum said that pliosaurs were the top marine predators of the Jurassic era, preying upon squid-like animals, fish, and other marine reptiles.
Another type of fossil marine reptile, the ichthyosaur, was bigger at up to 23 meters (75 ft). "The pliosaur is not the biggest sea monster but it's probably the most fierce," Hurum said, adding the fossil has jagged teeth the size of cucumbers.
"The front flipper of our pliosaur alone is three meters long. We've laid it out downstairs in the basement," he said.
Earlier estimates had been that the Norwegian pliosaur, popularly dubbed "The Monster," was about 12 meters (40 ft) long, roughly as long as Australia's kronosaurus.
The Arctic find "demonstrates that these gigantic animals inhabited the northern seas of our planet during the age of dinosaurs," said Patrick Druckenmiller of the University of Alaska Museum who was on the expedition that found the fossil.
The Norwegian museum said that it was planning to return in mid-2008 to excavate a skull and skeleton of another gigantic pliosaur recently found near "The Monster."

Cool.

 

[William_C]

Miata Appetizer

 

[CorpusBlack]

Namor could've kicked it's aquatic ass.

 

[Whirlysplat]

Why are we finding so many new fossils at the moment?

 

[WTFimVENOM]

Oh ****! That thing just killed nessy!

 

[cerealkiller182]

cool, i always find this stuff interesting

 

[DarknessOfDeath]

I like sea monsters! They;re so cools.

 

[Arkady Rossovich]

Why are we finding so many new fossils at the moment?

It's just that time. Humans have been finding fossils for thousands of years. It's just been official for the past 200-250 years.

 

[Lex Luthor]

Interesting read.

 

[Ice-man]

there not really sea monsters, just early ancestors of some of todays aquatic animals.

 

[Alex The Great]

clearly a cloverfield 2 viral marketing ploy.

 

[cerealkiller182]

there not really sea monsters, just early ancestors of some of todays aquatic animals.

buzzkill, next you'll tell me theres no santa

 

[Jack Rabbit]

Pics or it didn't happen.

 

[El ASESINO]

I would like to see some pictures

 

[Figs]

Pics...

 

[CorpusBlack]

clearly a cloverfield 2 viral marketing ploy.

I think the monster from 'Cloverfield' will kick this thing in the sh-tter.

 

[chamber-music]

Mothra

 

[Whirlysplat]

It's just that time. Humans have been finding fossils for thousands of years. It's just been official for the past 200-250 years.

Y-yes, but why so many lately. You would expect the number of new ones to be going down not up surely. I agree we have lots of evolutionary links missing, but, surely most fossil hotbeds, areas with lots of fossil have been examined already?

 

[Ice-man]

you have to also take into account that the earth shifts and changes, molten rock made new layers of crust, ice beds covered covered some land mass.

There are probably thousands of other species of animals, dinos and such out there that we will never get to see them cuz there soo far underground, or burried deep within ice, or miles beneath the oceans and lakes.

 

[Whirlysplat]

you have to also take into account that the earth shifts and changes, molten rock made new layers of crust, ice beds covered covered some land mass.

There are probably thousands of other species of animals, dinos and such out there that we will never get to see them cuz there soo far underground, or burried deep within ice, or miles beneath the oceans and lakes.

Well y-yes, techtonic plate theory. We are talking inches a year..........and as you say fossils have only really been being collected 250 years.

 

[SWAT]

Whoohooo-Norway.... *Leaves*