A rare discovery of the complete head and body of an ancient marine reptile with turtle-like flippers and a long neck like a giraffe has been unearthed in the outback Queensland town of McKinlay after the property informed the scientists, ABC News reported. Paleontologists said that the complete fossil of the elasmosaurus, a type of plesiosaur, is the first ever found in Australia.
Espen Knutsen, the senior curator of paleontology in the Museum of Tropical Queensland, said that they have been trying to find this kind of fossil for many years but to no avail. He added that this type of fossil is pretty hard to come by anywhere in the world, not just in Queensland.
A Plesiosaur skeleton from the Upper Jurassic period during a press preview at Summers Place Auctions on November 14, 2019, in Billingshurst, England.
Most Complete Plesiosaur Fossil Will Shed Light About the Species' Evolution
The 100-million-year-old fossil of the long-necked marine reptile is the complete skeleton of an ancient plesiosaur and was discovered in the remote property at the McKinley region; an area described as the Rosetta Stone of marine reptile paleontology. The paleontologists traveled to the remote site to collect the fossil and identify what species it was.
Yahoo! News reported that it was an Elasmosaurus that lived in the Eromanga Sea, which covered large inland Australia about 100 million years ago. Dr. Knutsen led the team who discovered the remains, which will be displayed in a museum.
He said that the team was extremely excited upon seeing the fossil and compared it to the Rosetta Stone of marine paleontology as it may hold the key to unraveling the species' diversity and evolution during the Cretaceous era in Australia. The Rosetta Stone is a large block of granite covered in inscriptions from ancient Egypt that contains information about the past.
There are more than a hundred known species of plesiosaurs in the world, wherein some have long necks and small heads, while others have short necks with giant heads. The team also discovered some stones in the fossil's stomach area, which implies that it swallowed stones to either grind up its food or as ballast when they dived.
Queensland Museum Network CEO Dr. Jim Thompson noted that the fossil would help scientists paint a comprehensive picture of the marine reptiles in Queensland that lived millions of years ago.
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Plesiosaurs are Not Dinosaurs
Aside from the complete fossil of elasmosaurus, they also found remains of other plesiosaurus and ichthyosaurs, which will be transported to Townsville for further research.
But experts said that the two species are not considered dinosaurs despite being ancient marine reptiles that lived during the time of dinosaurs. According to CNN, plesiosaurs evolved from their ancestors who lived on land and had no gills, so they had to resurface occasionally to breathe air. However, scientists do not know how long these animals can stay underwater.
The fossil discovery is the latest big discovery about ancient Australia in many years. The 2007 discovery of the fossilized skeleton in Queensland was confirmed last year to be the largest dinosaur in the country, with a standing height of about two stories tall and was as long as a basketball court.
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