From Arctic Soil, Fossils of a Goliath That Ruled the Jurassic Seas
By John Noble Wilford
New York Times
There were monstrous reptiles in the deep, back in the time of dinosaurs.
They swam with mighty flippers, two fore and two hind, all four accelerating on attack. In their elongated heads were bone-crushing jaws more powerful than a Tyrannosaurus rex’s. They were the pliosaurs, heavyweight predators at the top of the food chain in ancient seas.
Much of this was already known. Now, after an analysis of fossils uncovered on a Norwegian island 800 miles from the North Pole, scientists have confirmed that they have found two partial skeletons of a gigantic new species, possibly a new family, of pliosaurs.
This extinct marine reptile was at least 50 feet long