Norwegian researchers have discovered a second rare fossil in the Arctic of a pliosaur, a giant reptile described by experts as the ”T rex of the oceans”, the project leader said on Tuesday.
”We think it is a species unknown until now. Our pliosaur shows significant differences from those discovered in France and Britain,” said Joern Hurum, of Oslo University’s palaeontology department.
The fossil, including parts of the skull, was discovered during a dig this past summer in the Svalbard archipelago, about 1 000km from the North Pole.
The bones were found near those of a first pliosaur fossil discovered a year earlier.
Palaeontologists had hoped to find the first animal’s entire skeleton — it is believed to have been 10m long and weigh between 10 and 15 tonnes — but uncovered only large fragments, including its ribcage, a shoulder and leg.
Pliosaurs lived about 150-million years ago, when the Svalbard region was under water, and swam the seas at the same time as dinosaurs dominated the land.
They resembled giant sea lions, with four fins and a snout similar to those of a crocodile, and were the ocean’s equivalent of the land-based Tyrannosaurus rex, according to experts.
The massive jaw of the predator could have swallowed a grown man in a single gulp.
”We hope to launch a new campaign this summer to excavate the skeleton of the second pliosaur” that was left on site, Hurum said.
For now, two students are busy gluing together pieces of the first fossil in the basement of Oslo’s palaeontology museum, a puzzle that counts thousands of pieces and which could be completed early next year. — Sapa-AFP