2024-05-02 02:48:24
Elasmosaurs, a genus of plesiosaurs that inhabited the planet during the Age of Dinosaurs, specifically in the Cretaceous period, were marine reptiles that could measure up to 14 meters long and weigh about 2 tons.
Researchers from the University of Chile led a new campaign to extract pieces of a marine dinosaur spotted off the coast of Algarrobo, a 70 million year old elasmosaur specimen.
Rodrigo Otero, paleontologist who heads the project, states that this discovery “has the potential to constitute a first in terms of the fossil diversity of our country.”
Elasmosaurs, a genus of plesiosaurs that inhabited the planet during the Age of Dinosaurs, specifically in the Cretaceous period, They were marine reptiles that could measure up to 14 meters long and weigh about 2 tons. They were also characterized by their proportionally small heads, extremely elongated necks, hydrodynamic bodies and four fins.
The enormous fossil spotted by neighbors on the coast of Algarrobo in May 2022 belongs to this family, when a first block with articulated vertebrae was found. After that discovery, researchers from the Paleontological Network of the University of Chile took on the rescue of this specimen, from which they were able to recover material in a first expedition carried out in November 2023.
This campaign, however, could not complete the complete extraction of the specimen, mainly due to the difficulties associated with the flooding of the area due to the effect of the tides. Likewise, the arrangement of the skeleton within the rock was only discovered as the blocks were removed.
It is for this reason that, to continue with the task, they scheduled a second expedition, where It was possible to extract large blocks of rock with vertebrae visible to this elasmosaurmaterials that were transferred to the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Chile for cleaning and study, along with the fossil pieces recovered in the first campaign.
Rodrigo Otero, a researcher from the Paleontological Network of the University of Chile who heads this work, highlights that “only fragmentary remains had been found, and now we are finally being able to excavate a skeleton that seems to be more complete, where we already know that there are quite a few elements vertebral bodies, elements that appear to be part of the waist, and cranial elements. “We can confirm that we have indeed recovered cranial elements and, therefore, it is a specimen that will be – without a doubt – much more informative than what we have been able to recover until now in this locality and in rocks of this age in Chile.”