A Jurassic Jigsaw

100s of bones were pieced together to slot the makeshift skeleton of a Plesiosaur that ruled the oceans before dying out at the same time as dinosaurs

16:40 01 June 2016

Hundreds of bones were pieced together to slot the makeshift skeleton of a Plesiosaur, that ruled the oceans before dying out at the same time as dinosaur.

 

Dr Hilary Ketchum, of the Oxford Museum of Natural History, pieced together hundreds of bones to slot the makeshift skeleton of Eve, a plesiosaur that lived more than a hundred million years before dying out at the same time as dinosaurs.

 

Plesiosaurs, which were described by Dr Ketchum as ‘really unusual animals’, dominated the prehistoric oceans but there are still many unanswered questions about their biology, anatomy and evolution.

 

Dr Ketchum said: "They're a type of reptile related to other reptiles like dinosaurs, crocodiles, ichthyosaurs and turtles for example, but actually we're not really sure where they fit in the grand scheme of things."

 

"One day, one of the members found a little bone over there from the flipper just lying on the clay,"

 

"On further investigation, they found more and more bone and eventually they discovered the entire skeleton, which is very exciting.

 

"We think it's possibly a new species but even if it's not, it's very unusual. They're very rare fossils - plesiosaurs, especially nearly complete ones like this."