Scientists have identified a new species of ancient reptile that swam in the seas when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
Named Umoonasaurus, this creature lived in the waters off the coast of what is now Australia 115 million years ago, when the continent was much closer to Antarctica than it is today.
Umoonasaurus belongs to the group of plesiosaurs—large marine reptiles characterized by their rounded, robust bodies, short tails, and paddle-like limbs. A notable distinction of Umoonasaurus from other members of its group is a series of slender crests that protrude from its head and several vertebrae at the tip of its tail that served as anchors for small flippers.
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Description of the head and neck of an Umoonasaurus adult (top) and juvenile (bottom). (Photo: LiveScience) |
This newly discovered creature is part of a class of carnivorous marine reptiles known as rhomaleosaurids. “They are akin to the beaked whales of the Jurassic period,” said lead researcher Benjamin Kear from the University of Adelaide. However, Umoonasaurus was only about 2.4 meters long.
The fossils of Umoonasaurus have been found in opal mines in Australia for many years, dating back to the late 1960s, but it was only last year that the latest analyses confirmed it as a unique species.
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