A New Aquatic Monster Species Finally Identified After Half a Century on a New Zealand Island.
According to Sci-News, research led by Dr. Benjamin Kear from the Museum of Evolution at Uppsala University (Sweden) indicates that the new aquatic monster is a Nothosaur, which roamed the seas millions of years before dinosaurs dominated the land.
The fossilized remains of this aquatic creature were discovered in 1978 from a loose rock found along the main branch of Balmacaan Stream, at the foot of Harper Mountain in the Harper Range of New Zealand’s South Island.
However, it was only now that the Swedish research team has uncovered the true identity of this strange animal.
Portrait of the newly identified Triassic aquatic monster – (Graphic: Stavros Kundromichalis).
Nothosaurs are a group of Triassic marine reptiles, and are the distant ancestors of plesiosaurs that thrived in the subsequent Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.
They belong to a larger group of ancient marine reptiles known as Sauropterygia.
This creature is characterized by its long body and tail, a gigantic form that can reach up to 7 meters in length, as per the research published in Current Biology.
The fossil of this Nothosaur dates back to 246 million years, which is at the beginning of the Triassic period. It is “older” by 40 million years compared to the previously known oldest Sauropterygian fossils in the Southern Hemisphere.
The area it inhabited at that time was teeming with marine life, providing a rich food source for the species to thrive.
“The origins, distribution, and timing of Nothosaurs reaching these remote areas are still under debate,” the authors noted.
The oldest Nothosaur fossils are around 248 million years old and were found along the ancient low-latitude belt.
Some hypotheses suggest that they migrated along the northern polar coast, swam through inland sea routes, or used ocean currents to cross the Panthalassa superocean of that era.
It is possible that the ancient origins of this species are near the equatorial region.
Regardless of how it happened, it is clear that this lineage of aquatic monsters spread across the globe, dominating the oceans at one time, before being overtaken by marine reptiles of the dinosaur era such as mosasaurs, ichthyosaurs, and plesiosaurs.
This fossil evidence also suggests that New Zealand may be a promised land for discoveries related to Triassic reptiles, a significant period in the evolutionary history of life on Earth.
