Discovered an ancient snake-headed lizard

Argentine and American paleontologists have discovered fossils in the well-preserved condition of a newborn Plesiosauri that lived 70 million years ago in the South Pole.

The remains of fossil bones were found in 1998 on the Argentine island of Vega. This is the first fossil of an ancient newborn animal discovered. It was taken to the South Dakota Museum (USA) to recreate the statue.

The work, which lasted for about 10 years, allowed to confirm that this is a newborn snake-headed lizard with a neck 1.5m long compared to 10m in adult species.

According to researcher Mariano Merolli, this reptile is very close to the Loch Ness monster. It has small wings that allow it to fly to the surface and also has similarities with the current penguin species.

The skeleton is full of joints like when it was alive. However, the skull bone was broken due to bad weather conditions.

Researchers have hypothesized that a volcanic eruption could explain the death of this newborn animal because they found layers of ash in the area that discovered it.

(Photo: musei.unina.it)