A 100 million-year-old fossil of a sea dinosaur has just been discovered in outback Queensland and it could unlock the discovery of several new species of plesiosaur. The eight-year-old dino nerd in me is screaming.
The fossil consists of the head and body of a 5-7 metre long juvenile elasmosaur, which is a type of plesiosaur that existed alongside dinosaurs. If you’re a dinosaur nerd like me, you might have seen them in BBC’s Prehistoric Planet: they’re those absurdly long-necked creatures with jagged sharp teeth and round little bodies.
The elasmosaur find is a pretty big deal because it will be the first time a plesiosaur head and body will be held in a museum collection together.
“Because plesiosaurs were two-thirds neck, often the head would be separated from the body after death, which makes it very hard to find a fossil preserving both together, so we are using CT scanning to give us an insight into these magnificent animals,” Queensland Museum Network senior scientist and Curator of Palaeontology Dr Espen Knutsen
9 NewsA rendition of what a plesiosaur mother and baby could look like, as seen in the documentary series Prehistoric Planet.CassandraSallyCynthia
