100-million-year-old plesiosaur reptile skeleton found in Australia's outback

Australian paleontologists announced this week that they have discovered the complete skeleton of an ancient large, long-necked marine reptile in the Queensland desert that is about 100 million years old.

The team of paleontologists, led by Dr. Espen Knutsen from Queensland Museum Network, said that the fossil of the ancient elasmosaurus discovered in the remote McKinley region could hold the key to unlocking other evolutionary mysteries. Elasmosaurus is a plesiosaur that co-existed with dinosaurs during the early Cretaceous period about 145 to 66 million years ago

Knutsen said it is rare to find a fossil of the elasmosaurus preserved head and body together, as these fragments are usually separated after death due to the long slender neck of this animal.

Australia's Queensland was largely covered in a vast and shallow sea, called the Eromanga Sea, during the early Cretaceous period. Fossil remains of marine reptiles, such as plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs, are commonly found across the state, according to the Queensland Museum.

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