A unique fossil has been discovered in Queensland Australia: the head and upper body of an Elasmosaurus, a long-necked marine reptile that lived over 100 million years ago. Scientists expect a lot from this discovery to better understand the diversity and evolution of this species.
“It’s like the Rosetta Stone of marine paleontology, because it might be the key to understanding the diversity and evolution of long-necked plesiosaurs in Cretaceous Australia,” said Dr Knutsen of the Queensland Museum. We had never before found together a head and a body of this elasmosaur (a Eromangasaurus australis of the Plesiosaur family), which lived in the Lower Cretaceous period (at least 145-100 million years ago) in the shallow sea that covered much of the region. The lower body has not been found: scientists believe that it may have been cut in half by a predator, the knonosaur.
This finned marine reptile was characterized by a very long neck, and fed mainly on fish and molluscs. It might reach 14 meters in length and have up to 71 cervical vertebrae. Australian paleotologists believe that the fossil that has just been found is that of a juvenile.
Illustration showing what theEromangasaurus australis. © André Konstantinov/Espen Knusten/Scott Hocknull
©Queensland Museum Network
The rare fossil was discovered by hobbyists, the “Rock Chicks”, a group of friends who get together every year to research the property of one of their own. It replaces in the pantheon of Australian fossils “Dave the Plesiosaur”, with a less complete skeleton, discovered in 1999.
©Queensland Museum Network