The silhouette of the newly named plesiosaur species, Lagenanectes richterae, reveals the reptile's size as it compares to researcher Annette Richter. Photo by Joschua Knuppe/Uppsala University
Aug. 28 (UPI) -- Scientists have identified one of the oldest known plesiosaurs. The 132 million-year-old remains of the ancient sea monster were recovered in 1964 in northern Germany, but only recently examined by researchers.
Paleontologists named the newly examined species Lagenanectes richterae, a reference to the medieval Germanic name for the Leine River and Annette Richter, the natural sciences curator at the Lower Saxony State Museum. Richter was key is making the study of the ancient reptilian remains possible.
During the early Cretaceous, as dinosaurs ruled the land, plesiosaurs, long-necked aquatic reptiles resembling the iconic Loch Ness monster, dominated the seas.
"It was an honor to be asked to research the mysterious Sarstedt plesiosaur skeleton," Sven Sachs, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in Bielefeld, Germany, said in a news release. "It has been one of the hidden jewels of the museum, and even more importantly, has turned out to be new to science."
Researchers analyzed the species' skull, teeth, vertebrae and ribs, as well the remains of the reptile's unique flipper-like limbs. They found evidence of a chronic bacterial infection, which may have eventually proved fatal to the sea monster.
The analysis also helped researchers determine how the reptile likely hunted.
"The jaws had some especially unusual features," said Jahn Hornung, a palaeontologist based in Hamburg. "Its broad chin was expanded into a massive jutting crest, and its lower teeth stuck out sideways. These probably served to trap small fish and squid that were then swallowed whole."
Researchers believe Lagenanectes richterae belonged to Elasmosauridae, a family of plesiosaurs. Elasmosaurs had the longest necks of all plesiosaurs.
"The most important aspect of this new plesiosaur is that it is amongst the oldest of its kind," said Benjamin Kear, a researcher with the Museum of Evolution at Uppsala University in Sweden. "It is one of the earliest elasmosaurs, an extremely successful group of globally distributed plesiosaurs that seem to have had their evolutionary origins in the seas that once inundated Western Europe."
Researchers shared their work in a new paper published this week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
