Unknown sea monster revealed in abandoned quarry in China

A terrifying skeleton discovered on a cliff in China's Yunnan province has been identified as a completely new species of sea monster that lived 245 million years ago.

According to Sci-News, the relatively intact fossil skeleton of a new species of sea monster was discovered in an abandoned quarry in Lo Khe district, Yunnan province, China.

The research team led by Dr. Jun Liu from Hefei University of Technology (China) determined that it belonged to a previously unknown species that lived 245 million years ago, the Triassic period.

Skeleton of new sea monster species appears on rocks in China - (Photo: Swiss Journal of Palaeontology).

The new species - named Dianmeisaurus mutaensis - belongs to an extinct branch of reptiles called Pachypleurosaurs, within the order Sauropterygia, said the paper published in the Swiss Journal of Palaeontology .

This lineage evolved from terrestrial ancestors shortly after the previous end-Cenozoic mass extinction, more than 251 million years ago.

Members of this group of sea monsters appear to be quite lizard-like and have small heads, long necks, paddle-like limbs, and long tails.

"Sauropterygia is the most prolific clade among Mesozoic marine reptiles in terms of species diversity, including the iconic Plesiosauria from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods and the Placodontia and Eosauropterygia from the Triassic period," said Dr. Liu.

The skeleton of this strange creature was preserved in a layer of dark grey micritic limestone, with most of its body still lying in the exact position it was when it died.

The fossil also measures just 99.2mm in total length, suggesting it was quite small. However, this size was not unusual in the reptile world of that period.

This creature lived millions of years before the earliest ancestors of dinosaurs, which were also small in size.

It was only when the Jurassic period and then the golden age of the Cretaceous period entered a period of prosperity for the monster world, both on land and in water, with more diverse species and much larger than the primitive ones.

Phylogenetic studies of Dianmeisaurus mutaensis show its relationship to several known sea monsters in the region, providing further evidence pointing to the origin of the Pachypleurosaurs group as being east of the ancient Tethys Ocean.

Tethys lies between the two supercontinents Lausaria and Gondwana , which formed about 250 million years ago and "ended its life" about 200 million years ago, when the supercontinents broke up into many continents, reshaping the world map as it is today.