The BBC is reporting on a new collection of fossils that have come to light at the ends of the earth or, more specifically, Spitzbergen in Norway's remote Svalbard Islands. The fossils date from about 150 million years ago, when the area was free of ice and teeming with oceanic life, including such large carnivorous reptiles as the Plesiosaur and Pliosaur. These creatures, evolutionary relatives, and the mosasaur made up a trio that must have made the ancient seas truly terrifying places, as they were monsters in every sense of the word. The Plesiosaurs have a large, solid body sporting four flippers, but graced with a long, thin neck, a form made most famous by their supposed descendent, the Loch Ness Monster. They were a subgroup of the Pliosaurs, the remainder of which had a short neck and a long, torpedo-shaped body.
But, from the perspective of sea-monsterness, the key fact is that these things were BIG (to get a sense of how big, check out this photo). On Spitzbergen, one of these beasts left behind a skull that's about three meters long, suggesting an animal that may be over 8 meters long in total. The impressive part about these finds is that the skeletons are largely intact, with most bones being articulated normally against their neighbors. One even retained a tooth from a different species embedded in its neck, presumable evidence of an ancient attack. At least 30 individual animals have been found so far, and there are plans to return to the field again next year.
Aside from the general excitement of these finds, I'm awed by the dedication of the Norwegian paleontologists that did these excavations. A quick check of the weather in the Svalbard Islands reveals that the mean air temperature only peeks above freezing four months out of the year, and never hits double digits in the centigrade scale (those of you who speak Norwegian and enjoy the cold may want to check out the tourism info). I can't imagine living in those conditions for long, much less getting out and digging in them on a daily basis. Those guys deserve any press they get.