Revealing the Jurassic 'ocean lord' with a 6m long body

The monster's jaws alone were 1.3m long. It was a completely new species, described as a "super carnivore" that sat at the top of the food chain in the Jurassic oceans.

The newly discovered species, named Lorrainosaurus , is a new member of the pilosaur "carnivore dynasty" - distant relatives of today's lizards that have been at the top of the ocean food chain for 80 million years, according to a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports.

The head of Lorrainosaurus was reconstructed from the lower jaw bone - (Photo: LUXEMBOURG MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY).

According to Live Science, the first parts of the monster's body were excavated in 1983 in the Lorraine region of northeastern France, but no one could determine what it was until half a century later.

A 1994 study mistakenly assigned it to another known pilosaur genus, Simolestes, and so named the specimen Simolestes Keileni . It was not until recently that new fossil analysis techniques helped demonstrate that it was completely distinct from other Simolestes species.

The French monster is said to be more terrifying than anything found from the Jurassic oceans with jaws up to 1.3m long - 0.36m longer than Simolestes; body estimated to be about 6m long.

It was identified as a completely different branch of pilosaur and was dangerous beyond imagination.

"It ate whatever it wanted," said co-author Daniel Madzia from the Institute of Paleontology at the Polish Academy of Sciences.

This monster preyed on ancient sharks, giant sea turtles, pterosaurs, and many other species unfortunate enough to coexist with them in the Jurassic oceans.

Its identification and precise dating push back the appearance of giant marine reptiles by more than 5 million years. Apparently, these monsters began to emerge right at the time of a major shift in the Jurassic food chain 175-171 million years ago, after other apex predators had declined.