News stories (archived stories - 2004, 2005, 2006 )

5th Dec Arctic pliosaur new species

5th Dec 'Monsters' book review

7th Oct -Irish plesiosaur bone

6th Oct- 'Sea Monsters' released

29th July - Plesiosaur discovered, Germany

14th July - Elasmosaur discovered, Alberta

1st July - Plesiosaur animations released

1st July - Elasmosaurus painting - Part 2

23rd June - Dinosaur Shop!

3rd June - Hydrorion - new plesiosaur

28th May - Plesiosaur Newsletter launched

23rd May - Elasmosaurus painting

3rd May - Plesiosaur Forum intergrated

10th Apr - On two new plesiosaur species

1 Apr - O'keefe and Smith interview

27th Mar - New papers and two new species

27th Mar - Plesio-Store launched

23rd Mar - 3D plesiosaur released

16th Mar - An old sea monster

26rd Feb - Backwards Greenland plesiosaur

23rd Jan - Sea monster movie

Another giant pliosauroid plesiosaur fossil from Arctic Svalbard Islands appears to represent a new species. The specimen was discovered and initial excavations took place in Summer 2007. The treasure trove of marine reptile fossils were first discovered in 2006 by a team from the University of Oslo, Natural History Museum, led by Dr. Jørn Hurum and Hans Arne Nakrem; they discovered ichthyosaurs and a large pliosaur, which became known as the ‘Monster’ in the popular press. (for original story visit http://www.plesiosauria.com/news3.html#10). The new pliosaur was uncovered when the team returned to the locality – it seems to be the same species as the original ‘Monster’. The collected parts of the fossil include teeth, skull fragments and vertebrae, but the specimen is only partly uncovered and so the dig will continue next year. A more detailed review of the findings will also be presented next year.

Image by Tor Sponga, copyright Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Norway

More here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22097625/

I recently read and reviewed Mike Everhart’s new book for the online Journal Palaeontologica Electronica, I reproduce it here:

Sea Monsters – Prehistoric Creatures of the Deep
By Michael J. Everhart

Sea Monsters - Prehistoric Creatures of the Deep, is the official companion to the recently released IMAX movie of the same name. As Everhart explains in the preface to this book (and in the final chapter), both the movie and this book have their roots in the ‘Sea Monsters’ cover story featured in the December 2005 issue of National Geographic Magazine. The story introduced readers to Mesozoic marine reptiles, presenting information on a wide range of species throughout the Mesozoic Era, and from fossil locations all around the world. For the purposes of the movie, it was necessary to select a single geographical location and point in time. As scientific consultant to the Movie, Everhart sold the ‘Oceans of Kansas’ as the perfect setting for the movie; after all, Late Cretaceous seas were “probably the most dangerous seas ever on this planet”. And so it was that The Western Interior Seaway and many of its ferocious inhabitants were resurrected on the (very!) big screen. Sea Monsters, the book, allows readers to dig a little deeper into the history and science behind the movie.

Sea Monsters is a large format and highly visual volume. As one would expect from a National Geographic publication and official companion to a 3D movie, the selling point of this book is the imagery. Each of the 191 glossy pages in this book feature stills from the movie, numerous computer-generated artworks (including reproductions of those presented in the 2006 National Geographic Magazine cover story), historical photographs and photographs/illustrations of fossils and skeletons. For the most exciting visuals, however, don the complimentary pair of 3D glasses (to be found in a pouch on the inside back cover) and open up the 3D sections: between each chapter is a selection of three-dimensional stills from the movie, many of which occupy double-page spreads.

Chapter one asks: “what is a sea monster?” The question isn’t really answered (there is no meaningful answer), but allows Everhart to divulge into the diversity of prehistoric marine reptiles, with short sections on the origins and habits of ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, turtles, and mosasaurs; and to outline their place in prehistory. The end of this chapter focuses on the Western Interior Seaway, setting the scene for some of the following chapters, which will describe the environment and food webs of the Late Cretaceous period. Chapter two looks at the historical context of marine reptiles, and in particular, the major scientists and ‘fossil finders’ involved in the discovery of the many creatures preserved in the deposits of the Western Interior Seaway. Chapter three reviews the fauna – all of the key ‘characters’ in the movie are outlined and illustrated. Chapter five provides an overview of the extinction theories proposed to explain the disappearance of many of the groups 65 million years ago. The last chapter comprises a ‘making of’ section. Much like Sternberg’s famous fossil fish within a fish, nestled amongst each chapter are short self-contained sections; these ‘Close Up’ and ‘Album’ sections provide a little more detail, or a ‘case study’, on some aspect mentioned in passing in the main text.

The scientific content is basic and aimed towards a popular adult audience. Although a separate children’s book is also available (Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure
by Marfe Delano Ferguson), the style and depth of text in Sea Monsters- Prehistoric Creatures of the Deep, is certainly accessible to older children. The tone of the book is in keeping with the aims of the movie, to simultaneously entertain and educate. Marine reptiles have long been overlooked and overshadowed by dinosaurs in vertebrate palaeontology books and children’s books on prehistoric life, but this is slowly changing: look out dinosaurs, here come the sea monsters!

The book is available from Amazon for a very reasonable price:

A plesiosaur bone has been discovered in Ireland, reported the BBC in October. The single bone represents a large plesiosaur vertebral centrum, but cannot be identified in any detail. It was discovered by Park Ranger Paul Bennet in the Colin River in Colin Glen, on the West edge of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Marine reptile fossils are exceedingly rare in Ireland and this find represents one of only a handful discovered to date.

More here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7035202.stm

Back in October, the newest film offering from National Geographic opened to 78 IMAX theaters across the United States, the largest ever opening for an IMAX movie. ‘Sea Monsters’ is set in the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Sea, and follows the journey of a growing Dolichorhynchops. The official website is now complete and up and running.

I am planning to see this over the Winter holiday – I will post the review here.

A four-metre-long plesiosaur skeleton has been discovered by in Northern Germany by an amateur palaeontologist. 19-year-old fossil collector Sönke Simonsen discovered the specimen in June whilst looking for fossils with his dad in a quarry at Tongrube in Kreis Hoxter, near Bielefeld. “The first thing I discovered was a caudal-vertebra” said Simonsen, “but then I realised that to the left and also to the right direction there were more and more vertebrae.” The specimen is almost complete, but unfortunately the head has not yet been found. The fossil hunters contacted the local LWL-Museum für Naturkunde, Münster, who have initiated an excavation to collect the specimen. The plesiosaur has elongated cervical vertebrae and a long neck, typical elasmosaurid features.

Some neck vertebrae of the new german plesiosaur (photo from here)

The specimen is especially important for two reasons. Firstly, plesiosaurs are very rare in the north of Germany, and this represents the first significantly complete specimen of a long-necked plesiosaur from this region. Secondly, the specimen was discovered in rocks that are Pliensbachian (Lower Jurassic) in age. This period in plesiosaur history is very poorly known, so the new specimen may provide rare information on the evolution of plesiosaurs during the Jurassic.

Links to similar stories (in German) and more images:

here, here, here and here.

A giant plesiosaur has been discovered and excavated from the Late Cretaceous Bearpaw Shale of Drumheller, southern Alberta, Canada. According to the press release the fossil remains were found in an ammolite mine by staff from Korite International (‘Ammolite’ is a gemstone, not to be confused with the prehistoric cephalopod ‘ammonite’,).

The team from the Royal Tyrell Museum excavating the specimen -the fossil is covered in a layer of white supporting burlap soaked in plaster, to encase and protect it on its journey to the museum. Image: 'Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology/Alberta Tourism, Parks, Recreation and Culture' (used with permission).

After spotting a neck vertebra, work in the mine was halted to investigate the find. The Royal Tyrell Museum mounted an expedition led by Dr. Don Henderson, to recover the plesiosaur, which has since been identified as an elasmosaurid and possibly represents the largest marine reptile ever unearthed in Alberta. 9000 tonnes of rock, still containing the bones, were excavated during the three-week dig, but the exact contents will only be revealed from careful preparation of the specimen, over the next couple of years.

Original press release:

http://www.gov.ab.ca/home/NewsFrame.cfm?ReleaseID=/acn/200707/2175797FEC98C-DCA7-0E20-02CE106EED55B825.html

Other reports:

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/story.html?id=385f2523-72bd-488c-9159-1dfd2c44d0d0&k=28174

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2007/07/06/bones-found.html?ref=rss

On Monday the 18th of June, Hive Studios announced the first installment of their animation library featuring some amazing animations of prehistoric animals, including some plesiosaurs. Samples of the animations are available here:

http://web.mac.com/hivestudios/iWeb/hive%20studios/Products.html

The plesiosaurs are Cryptoclidus, but it's also worth checking out the Allosaurus and Othnelia animations too.The animations feature in the ABC Science documentary "CRUDE", all about crude oil. The documentary, including the plesiosaur animations in Part 1, can be seen here:

http://www.abc.net.au/science/crude/

A special exhibition entitled "Collecting Oklahoma" opened in the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, on the 16th of June 2007. The exhibition features an original painting of an Elasmosaurus by artist Debby Cotter Kaspari. The exhibit was curated by Rick Lupia, the project coordinator was Deborah Kay, and Tom Luczycki was the exhibits director. I discussed in a previous news article (see Part 1) the initial stages of the design process for this project. Kaspari worked closely with palaeontologist Kyle Davies on the elasmosaur, to make it as accurate as possible. I am now pleased to reveal the final work of art.

Debby ponders over the finished painting - the original piece was produced at half size...

... but was later blown up in a mural to represent a full-size adult Elasmosaurus in the exhibit. Notice the string of elasmosaurid vertebrae in the foreground.

Kaspari attended the grand opening of the event: "It went great!" explains Kaspari pictured here next to the finished Elasmosaurus exhibit, "A wonderful turnout, lots of excitement, and the mural  looked really good up there. It's big, really big. And toothy"

The complete painting by Debby Cotter Kaspari...

...and detail of the head of the Elasmosaurus.

To coincide with the opening of the new exhibit, a specially designed postal cancellation stamp featuring the head of the Elasmosaurus was released by the post office in Norman, Oklahoma. The stamp was also designed by Debby Kaspari, who was on hand at the opening event to autograph her artwork.

I would again like to thank Debby Kaspari for providing information and allowing me to use her photographs and images.

After the success of the Plesiostore, the time seemed right for the Plesiosaur Directory to branch out into other areas. Affiliated with Amazon.com, the newly launched Dinosaur Shop sells all manner of dinsaur merchandise: toys, books, you name it! I set up these stores to help raise funds to maintain the Plesiosaur Directory website and to help fund my plesiosaur research. A small percentage of each purchase goes towards plesiosauria.com. Each order is dealt with securely and delivered rapidly via Amazon.com. Feel free to advertise the Dinosaur Shop on your website with this banner:

The most recent issue of the ‘Palaeontology’ (Vol 49, Part 3) features an article by Franziska Grossman on the plesiosauroids from the Jurassic Posidonia Shale in Germany. Grossman describes the skulls of two genera, Seeleyosaurus guilelmiimperatoris (a tongue-twister of a taxon! - formerly Plesiosaurus guilelmiimperatoris) and introduces a new genus Hydrorion brachypterygius (formerly Plesiosaurus brachypterygius). Interestingly, Grossman analyses the holotype of ‘Plesiopterys’, a genus erected by O’Keefe (2004), and identifies it as a juvenile of Seeleyosaurus. Another major consequence of this paper is the removal of these species from Plesiosaurus, a genus which now contains only one valid species: P. dolichodeirus.

Each fortnightly Newsletter will be formatted into a number of sections. ‘News’ will be a round up of recent news stories and scientific papers. ‘Updates’ will outline recent additions to The Plesiosaur Directory website – I will endeavour to create a major update every fortnight. ‘PDF corner’ will host a temporary link to a PDF plesiosaur article from my collection. “Featured Image” will provide a link to one of my favourite images from The Plesiosaur Directory or elsewhere on the web. “Pick of the web” will provide a link to a recommended and related website/page. For kids (and those young at heart!) I have devised ‘Where’s Paddy?’ Be the first to find Paddy the Plesiosaur and get a special mention in next weeks Newsletter! Finally, ‘Ads’ will explain what’s new in the Plesio-Store. To read previous Newsletters, see here: http://www.plesiosauria.com/newsletter.html

Joining the mailing list is simple, just type your email below and click subscribe.

Artist Debby Cotter Kaspari has produced an Elasmosaurus painting as part of a special exhibition in the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History entitled "Collecting Oklahoma", scheduled to open on the 16th of June 2007. The exhibit will present a selection of rare and unique specimens collected around Oklahoma by the museum over the last decade. The painting was produced to be as accurate as possible:

"I worked closely with our paleontologists at the Sam Noble  Museum" explains Kaspari."I'm very happy with the finished painting which will be...presented along with the vertebrae of the elasmosaur."

The painting will be enlarged to life-size (30 feet by 15 feet) - but even the original painting is half of that. Although only the finished painting will be displayed int the exhibit, this project provides a perfect case study examplifying the process through which palaeoatists restore prehitoric animals. The first stage involves researching the anatomy of the animal - In this case, Kaspari created a scale model of the whole animal, and a full-size model of the skull based on published reconstructions of the bones of an elasmosaurid:

From these models sketches can be made from all possible angles, and these form the basis for the final piece of artwork:

It is also possible to experiment with colour and patterning before commiting a colour scheme to the final painting. Here is an experimental colour scheme for the head:

The finalized painting is now currently under wraps, but it will be featured on this page soon after the official opening of the exhibit in June. So stay tuned for part 2 of this article...

Many thanks to Debby Kaspari for providing information and allowing me to use her photographs and images.

More information:

http://www.snomnh.ou.edu/exhibits/spex.html - the official webpage of the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History

http://drawingthemotmot.wordpress.com/ -Debby Kaspari's weblog and website:

www.debbykaspari.com

The Plesiosaur Directory is not the only website dedicated to plesiosaurs, and it was not the first. The Plesiosaur Site by Richard Forrest contains a weath of information about plesiosaurs - including a database containing data about the distribution of plesiosaurs geographically, stratigraphically, and providing a comprehensive list of plesiosaur references and specimens in museum collections. Furthermore, Richard launched the Plesiosaur Forum last year; a dynamic forum for researchers and plesiosaur enthusiasts to communicate and learn from each other. Recently, Richard kindly upgraded my status in the Forium to co-administrator, and we agreed to intergrate the Forum fully into The Plesiosaur Directory in addition to the Plesiosaur Site. This forms a nice bond uniting the two sites and there may be more to come...

In the meantime, we welcome you to become a Plesiosaur Forum member and look forward to continuing and expanding on the interesting and engaging plesiosaur discussions!

Adam

The second paper in the two-part report on by Albright et al. on plesiosaurs from the Upper Cretaceous Tropic Shale of southern Utah (Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology, Volume 27(1) p. 41-58), introduces two new genera and species of polycotylid plesiosaur and contributes to the systematics of polycotylid plesiosaurs. The first new genus and species, Palmula quadratus possesses a unique combination of characters amongst polycotylid plesiosaurs - distinctly polygonal epipodials combined with small overall adult size. Palmula is also the only named representative of a new subfamily proposed by Albright et al, the Palmulainae, a clade diagnosed by polygonal epipodials.

The other new plesiosaur, Eopolycotylus rankini, is an almost complete specimen named after David O. Rankin who discovered the fossil in 2001. "I've been fossil hunting since I was 9 years old" explains Rankin, who made his first large pliosaur find at the age of 14. So what is it like to have a plesiosaur named after you? "I'm very excited about it" says Rankin, "Its like having your own little piece of history, and science." Rankin also assisted the excavation team who excavated Eopolycotylus rankini in 2003. The team from the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff was headed by Dr David Gillette who is a coauthor of the paper.

E. rankini is a representative of a second new subfamily, the Polycotylinae, which also includes the majority of known polycotylids. As in all other polycotylines the epipodials of Eopolycotylus are broader than long, contrasting with the condition in Palmulines.

The most recent Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology (Volume 27(1)) contains three new plesiosaur papers. A short communication by Ben Kear (p. 241-246) clarifies the taxonomy of what has become a very confusing taxon - Eromangasaurus. The confusion originated because two separate researchers (Ben Kear and Sven Sachs) published separate descriptions and names for the same specimen, simultaneously. The officialy settled name of this taxon is Eromangasaurus australis (Sachs, 2005) Kear, 2005

The other two articles from part 1 and part 2 of a review of plesiosaurs from the Upper Cretaceous Tropic Shale of southern Utah by Albright et al.

The first part (p.31-40) describes new material pertaining to Brachauchenius lucasi. Interestingly, I was surprised to see an infamous historical blunder rear its head. In 1957 Tarlo described an unusual pliosaur scapula and introduced the new genus Stretosaurus based on the unique morphology. Despite this interpretation being perpetuated in later papers (Tarlo 1959, 1960), unfortunately, as Tarlo (who changed his name to Halstead) later pointed out (1989), this unique scapula was in fact a perfectly normal pliosaur ilium. it seems this fact is not so well known becasue in their new paper, Albright et al present two possible reconstructions for the partial scapula of Brachauchenius, one based on Liopleurodon, the other based on the muddled 'Stretosaurus' ilium (Fig. 1). I'm surprised this error made it through the peer review process.

It is also possible that both interpretations of the pelvic girdle (Fig. 2) given by Albright et al's are erroneous. Comparison with other specimens of Brachauchenius overlooked by the authors (Fig. 3) and other pliosaurs (Figs. 4, 5) show that the pelvic girdle are always greatly elongated in pliosaurs. Although it is not possible to be certain without observing the specimen first hand, it appears that the orientation of at least some of the elements in (Fig. 2 ) are open to reinterpretaion. Likely, the margin interpreteted as the obturator foramen, is the lateral margin of the pubis. It is also possible that the pubis and coracoid have been muddled.

Fig 1. The two interpretations proposed by Albright et al for the partial scapula ofBrachauchenius. 'A' is erroneously based in the ilium of 'Stretosaurus'. From Albright et al (2007).

Fig. 2. The two proposed interpretations of one half of the pelvic girdle of Brachauchenius. From Albright et al. (2007)

Fig 3. Pubis of a specimen of Brachauchenius sp., as figured by Hampe (2005). Anterior towards the top - the orientation is confident because the specimen is articulated. This paper was overlooked by Albright et al (2007)

Fig 4. Pelvic girdle of Liopleurodon, showing the greatly elongated form typical of pliosaurs. from Andrews (1913)

Fig 5. Pelvic girdle of Simoletes, again showing the greatly elongated form typical of pliosaurs. from Andrews (1913)