Find the 'monster' reptile in the Arctic

The bones of a bus-sized prehistoric reptile have been found on a remote Arctic island, and may be a species that science has never known.

The preliminary excavation in the Svalbard archipelago last August revealed the bones, teeth and skulls and bones of a reptile, estimated to be 12 meters long, Joern Harald Hurum from the University of Oslo, Norway, said."It seems that this monster is a new species, " he said.

(Artwork: Blog.wired.com) The animal seems to be the same species as another marine creature found nearby on the same archipelago last year. The team described the 150-million-year-old fossils belonging to a group of short-necked plesiosaurs, with a length of more than 9 meters - "as long as a bus with teeth larger than cucumbers".

The short-necked long-necked head is a voracious reptile, often likened to the ocean's tyrannical dinosaur.

Mark Evans, a plesiosaur specialist at the Leicester City Museum in England, said he did not have enough information about discoveries in Norway to comment specifically. But according to him, new discoveries about marine reptiles often occur.

Hurum said his team has only excavated on a 3 meter range. They are expected to announce their findings next year, and return to this area for further excavations the following year.

T. An