New Pliosaur Fossil Discovery Along the Volga River
A member of the Westbury, NY, community, Valerie Varnuska has a passion for the technologies behind robotic competitions. Valerie Varnuska also has a strong interest in areas of science such as geology and paleontology. In the latter area, paleontologists have recently identified a new fossilized marine reptile along the Volga River’s eroded banks.
Pliosaurs from the Cretaceous Period 130 million years ago were a type of short-necked plesiosaur that lived in prehistoric seas across what is now Europe. Luskhan itilensis were capable of fast speeds and had a five-foot skull combined with a narrow rostrum, similar to fish-eating aquatic animals such as river dolphins.
The new find has expanded scientific information about plesiosaur evolution and provided insight into the pliosaurs’ final extinction, which occurred long before that of dinosaurs. Particular questions remain about how the pliosaur weathered an earlier 145 million year old Jurassic extinction, yet wound up extinct in the later stages of the Jurassic Era.
Pliosaurs from the Cretaceous Period 130 million years ago were a type of short-necked plesiosaur that lived in prehistoric seas across what is now Europe. Luskhan itilensis were capable of fast speeds and had a five-foot skull combined with a narrow rostrum, similar to fish-eating aquatic animals such as river dolphins.
The new find has expanded scientific information about plesiosaur evolution and provided insight into the pliosaurs’ final extinction, which occurred long before that of dinosaurs. Particular questions remain about how the pliosaur weathered an earlier 145 million year old Jurassic extinction, yet wound up extinct in the later stages of the Jurassic Era.
