Jurassic sea monster's identity revealed after 25 years of confusion

(NLDO) - Strange fossilized bone fragments excavated in Colombia in 1999 have finally been identified as a completely new species of sea monster.

According to Sci-News, the new sea monster species was named Platypterygius elsuntuoso - a member of Ophthalmosauridae, a family of ichthyosaurs that lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

The sea monster Platypterygius elsuntuoso was a Jurassic ichthyosaur - Graphic image: Earth Sciences Research Journal

Previously, fossil bones dating back up to 125 million years were excavated by the Colombian Biogeographical Organization in 1999.

The bones were unlike anything ever found, and they baffled scientists until recently, when a team from the National University of Colombia and the José Royo y Gómez National Geological Museum decided to analyze them.

The painstaking process of pairing and comparing helped them confirm that it was a completely new species as well as learn about the animal's family tree.

Scientists have not been able to determine the specific size of this monster.

Meanwhile, the collected skeletal parts include a nearly complete skull, some axial components such as cervical vertebrae and a few cervical vertebrae... all belonging to a single individual, either juvenile or sub-adult.

Excavated fossils - Photo: Earth Sciences Research Journal

The specimen was found in a conglomerate on La Cabrera Hill, northwest of Villa de Leiva in Boyacá Province in central Colombia. However, geological signs suggest that the animal most likely died elsewhere, carried here by ancient water.

Several other members of the Platypterygius genus of this sea monster have also been found in other parts of the world, suggesting that this genus and the larger ichthyosaur family once extended their communities across the globe.

Like most terrestrial dinosaurs, ichthyosaurs - also known as fish lizards - became most diverse and abundant during the Cretaceous period.

However, like the dinosaurs, this lineage of sea monsters, along with other giant marine reptiles such as mosasaurs, completely disappeared after the Chicxulub asteroid disaster.

The discovery of this new sea monster species was published in the scientific journal Earth Sciences Research Journal.

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