Dinosaur and Fossil: Alaska Paleontologists Find Plesiosaur, Swimming Dinosaur

The animal was discovered by Curvin Metzler, an Alaskan archaeologist and fossil collector. The creature, a type of plesiosaur with a very long neck and paddle-like legs, swam under water in the Late Cretaceous period, about 70 million years ago, as a release noted.

Druckenmiller has collected plesiosaurs from the North America’s western regions and is one of the world’s leading marine reptile fossil experts.

Researchers have confirmed the discovery of a marine reptile fossil in the Talkeetna Mountains, the University of Alaska Museum of the North announced Wednesday, July 22, 2015.

The species found is characterized by a very long neck that measures more than 14 meters. He had hiked around the area for the past 25 years, but it was the first time he had ever found a vertebrate fossil there. It was at that point that the fossil hunter was able to identify the skeleton as originating from an elasmosaur; a large percentage of the remains have since been recovered.

The fossil discovered was of an Elasmosaurus, a sea creature from the same family as the plesiosaur.

Experts say that the newly discovered plesiosaur dubbed Elasmosaur looked pretty much like the fabled Loch Ness monster. Back in 2010, he also found an nearly complete skeleton of another elasmosaur in Montana, and offered it to the local museum located in Fairbanks.

Although the fossils were 30 feet up a 60-foot cliff, Druckenmiller wasn’t deterred from pursuing the find.

Alaska is a popular spot for the discovery of ancient marine reptiles.

Patrick Druckenmiller, researchers of the museum, said, “I was excited the first time Curvin showed me one of its bones”. Alaska has also been the home of two distinct finds, the first being a long, lizard-like reptile with a flattened tail known as a thalattosaur, which was uncovered on the shores of the Thongass National Forest southeast of Juneau; the other, an ichthyosaur, which resembles a modern dolphin, was discovered in the Brooks Range, located in the northernmost reaches of the state. Druckenmiller was convinced that there could be more to excavate, so he suggested that they go back to the site to see whether or not there is still more fossils waiting to be excavated. These kinds of animals are really enormous, having the capacity of growing up to 25 feet and weighing no less than 2000 tons.