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Pregnant prehistoric fossil discovered

EDMONTON, Alberta, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- Canadian scientists named a new species of ancient marine reptile "Ping Pong Ichthyosaur" for the spot where the prehistoric fossil was stored for 25 years.

"It was pretty amazing to realize this valuable discovery had sat under a Ping Pong table for 25 years," said Michael Caldwell, a University of Alberta paleontologist. "But I suppose that after 100 millions of years in the dirt, it's all relative."

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Embryos found within the marine fossil's pregnant body also mark the most recent record of a live birth and the physically smallest known ichthyosaur embryos.

A few decades ago graduate students collected several ichthyosaur specimens -- the marine animals resembled dolphins and fish -- in the Northwest Territories. Somehow the bones ended up stored beneath a Ping Pong table in the science undergraduate lab.

When Caldwell arrived in 2000, he found the boxes and, working with then undergraduate student Erin Maxwell, Caldwell learned the bones were from the Lower Cretaceous period, and were about 100 million years old.

"What was really interesting was at this point in history the Ichthyosaur goes extinct," said Caldwell. "So anything from this time is going to be really important."

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The research appears in the journal Paleontology.

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