Fossil of 50-ft. marine reptile discovered

LONGYEARBYEN, Norway, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Norwegian scientists say that a fossil found on Spitsbergen is the largest marine reptile ever known.

The pliosaur species lived about 150 million years ago, the BBC reports. The Spitsbergen specimen was 50 feet long, about the size of a whale shark and half the size of the largest blue whales.

"We have carried out a search of the literature, so we now know that we have the biggest. It's not just arm-waving anymore," Jorn Hurum of the University of Oslo told the the BBC. "The flipper is 3 meters (almost 10 feet) long with very few parts missing. On Monday, we assembled all the bones in our basement and we amazed ourselves -- we had never seen it together before."

The previous holder of the title of biggest marine reptile was the Kronosaurus, a fossil pliosaur found in Australia. The Spitsbergen specimen, about 20 percent larger, has been nicknamed The Monster.

The Monster is one of about 40 marine reptile fossils found at a site on Spitsbergen.