Tuesday, March 25, 2008

T. Rex of the Sea

Another giant dinosaur has been discovered, this time an ocean-going variety called a pliosaur, with teeth the size of a T-Rex's. :

Pliosaurs were large reptiles with tear-shaped bodies and short necks, a body plan that let the ancient animals glide easily through the oceans during the Jurassic Period (from 206 million to 144 million years ago). Their relatives, the plesiosaurs, had longer necks and small heads.

While most pliosaurs averaged up to 20 feet (6 meters) in length, a few oversized family members are known to have existed from fossil evidence, such as the Australian giant Kronosaurus, which measured up to 36 feet (11 meters) long.

The newly described pliosaur, dubbed The Monster by team members, boasted a length of about 50 feet (15 meters) and powerful paddles extending 10 feet (3 meters).

"Not only is this specimen significant in that it is one of the largest and relatively complete plesiosaurs ever found, it also demonstrates that these gigantic animals inhabited the northern seas of our planet during the age of dinosaurs" said Patrick Druckenmiller, a plesiosaur specialist at the University of Alaska Museum, and a member of the expedition that found and excavated the fossil.


And it is worth pointing out that as much difficulty as the creationists have in explaining what happened to the land-dwelling dinosaurs, that's nothing compared to the difficulty in explaining what happened to the ocean dwellers. They would have welcomed the flood for its expansion of their hunting territory and prey.

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