Giant Marine Plesiosaur Discovered by Argentine Scientists

Argentine scientists are celebrating the discovery of the remains of a giant plesiosaur, a four-finned carnivorous marine reptile that lived in Antarctic waters around 150 million years ago.

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The fossil was found in the Antarctic peninsula, in a paleontological deposit located 113 kilometers southwest of Argentina's Marambio Airbase.

According to paleontologist José Patricio O’Gorman, a researcher with the Museum of La Plata and Argentina's National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), this finding "is 80 million years older than what was previously known in Antartica."

Soledad Gouiric, a researcher at CONICET, highlighted the finding's importance: "The site doesn't have the type of rock where you can find materials preserved in three dimensions, like the vertebrae of this marine reptile," Gouiric said. 

The discovery suggests that the ancient frozen lake where the new fossil was unearthed might prove to be a site of vast paleontological wealth. 

It has the potential to "explain species disperision dating to 150 million years ago... when Antartica was part of the Gondwana continent and was next to Australia, New Zeland, India, Madagascar, Africa and South America," Marcelo Reguero of the Argentine Antarctic Institute explained. 

Gouiric and Reguero confirmed that a new discovery mission will work on the site between January 8 and mid-February next year.