It took years of battling the weather on a small and deserted island just off the Antarctic Peninsula for paleontologists to unearth the remains of the heaviest Elasmosaurus known. We are talking about the ancient marine reptiles that lived in the seas during the Cretaceous period.
Let us explain that elasmosaurs are huge plesiosaurs, one of the largest marine creatures of the Cretaceous period. Plesiosaurs are somewhat similar to huge manatees with necks like giraffes and snake heads.
For the first time, these remains of an ancient creature were discovered on Seymour Island during the 1989 expedition. At that time, specialists did not have enough resources to extract the fossilized remains without damaging them. But they reported the find to researchers in Argentina.
Since then, scientists from the Antarctic Institute of Argentina have traveled to the island and excavated as part of their annual summer research expeditions.
According to the National Geographic edition, the work was greatly complicated by weather conditions and logistics.
The researchers could only work for a few weeks in January and early February. For several years no excavations were carried out at all due to weather conditions or limited resources.
In the few days they could work, scientists had to wait for the sun to thaw the soil before digging. And each piece extracted was sent by helicopter to the Argentine base of Marambio. But all the efforts were worth it, experts say.
The individual weighed from 11.8 to 14.8 tons.
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In 2017, the work was completed, and scientists received a significant part of the skeleton of an ancient animal (without a skull).
According to paleontologists, the specimen, which has not yet been named, weighed between 11.8 and 14.8 tons. And its length from head to tail was more than 12 meters.
As scientists suggest, the animal belongs to the genus Aristonectes. Interestingly, other members of this genus previously found weighed about 11 tons or so. Most of the other Elasmosaurs weighed even less - about five tons. In other words, the found specimen is a real heavyweight.
However, while scientists cannot say with certainty that the individual belongs to the genus Aristonectes. Perhaps further work will force paleontologists to reconsider ideas.
Aristonectes parvidens as seen by the artist.
As experts add, the new Elasmosaurus is also interesting because it lived on Earth almost at the end of the Cretaceous period. It turns out that he terrified sea creatures just 30 thousand years before the mass extinction of a huge number of dinosaurs.
To satisfy the appetite of such a large creature, it would take a lot of marine life. From this, paleontologists conclude that in the Late Cretaceous period there were a lot of sea creatures in the ocean.
Researchers cannot determine what the sea monster ate because they did not find fossilized stomach contents or other evidence of past feasts.
However, co-author José O'Gorman of the National Science and Technology Research Council, based at the La Plata Museum near Buenos Aires, believes the specimen may have eaten crustaceans and small fish. This is indicated by the small-sized teeth of the "monster".
Today, experts are just beginning to carefully study the bones found, which are now kept in the museum. Perhaps future research will improve paleontologists' understanding of the ancient marine heavyweight and help determine which genus the individual belonged to.
The results of the research and description of the remains of the ancient creature are presented in an article published in the publication Cretaceous Research.
