Thursday, October 05, 2006
'Monster' fossil find in Arctic: Pliosaur - Tyrannosaurus Rex of the Sea
From BBC News UK: Norwegian scientists have discovered a 'treasure trove' of fossils belonging to giant sea reptiles that roamed the seas at the time of the dinosaurs.
The 150 million-year-old fossils were uncovered on the Arctic island chain of Svalbard - about halfway between the Norwegian mainland and the North Pole.
The finds belong to two groups of extinct marine reptiles - the plesiosaurs and the ichthyosaurs.
One skeleton of a gigantic pliosaur has been nicknamed 'The Monster' because of its enormous size.
These animals were the top predators living in what was then a relatively cool, deep sea.
Palaeontologists from the University of Oslo's Natural History Museum discovered the fossils during fieldwork in a remote part of Spitsbergen, the largest island in the Svalbard archipelago.
Continued at "'Monster' fossil find in Arctic: Pliosaur - Tyrannosaurus Rex of the Sea" [Evolution, Predator, Norway, Dinosaur, Paleontology, Palaeontology]
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Similar news reports include the Washington Post's "Remains of Ancient Reptile Are Found" and "'Monster' Reptile Fossil Found on Arctic Island" plus the International Herald Tribune's "Researchers find prehistoric remains of giant, sea reptile on Arctic island"
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Technorati: bbc, news, norwegian, fossils, sea, reptiles, dinosaurs, arctic, island, svalbard, extinct, marine, plesiosaurs, icthyosaurs, skeleton, pliosaur, the monster, deep, university, oslo, natural history, museum, spitzbergen, achipelago, monster, tyrannosaurus, rex, washington post, international, herald, tribune, reptile, evolution, paleontology, palaeontology, dinosaur, norway, predator
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