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Monster diggers
A giant , nautical reptile spanning some 40 foot ( 12 meters ) in length has been officially namedPliosaurus funkei , scientists report in the Oct. 12 , 2012 issue of the Norwegian Journal of Geology .
Getting underneath
In 2006 , scientists unearthed two monolithic pliosaur skeletons in Svalbard , Norway , a bowed stringed instrument of island midway between Europe and the North Pole . The giant wight , one of which was dub Predator X at the time , looked slenderly unlike from other pliosaurs discovered in England and France over the last C and a half .
Flip it
The immense fossils had to be cast in adhesive plaster before being removed from the web site .
Monster hunters camp
Here , the chilly camp where the researchers discovered the fossil .
A little breather
" They were the top piranha of the ocean , " say study co - generator Patrick Druckenmiller ( right in photo ) , a paleontologist at the University of Alaska Museum . " They had tooth that would have made a T. rex whimper . " Druckenmiller ( right ) analyzed the pliosaur specimen with fellow worker Espen M. Knutsen and Jørn H. Hurum , both of the Natural History Museum , University of Oslo .
Killer instinct
The newfangled species likely lived about 145 million years ago and ate plesiosaurs , related long - necked , small - headed reptilian . Here the closely 50 - ton ( 45 - t ) pliosaur attacks a plesiosaur .
The end
Pliosaurus funkeihad a bite four times as powerful as Tyrannosaurus male monarch ; in this artist ’s conception , the muscular pliosaur crush down on a plesiosaur with its 33,000 - pound bite .
Size definitely matters
The researchers estimate the fauna was grown than the largest living apex predator , the killer hulk , which top out at about 30 foundation ( 9 metre ) long . ( Shown here in a size comparability with a killer hulk , bluish whale and human plunger . )
Clean-up crew
ThePliosaurus funkeifossils were just two of nearly 40 specimens come upon at the Svalbard site . In the Oct. 12 issue of the Norwegian Journal of Geology , the writer also describe two newfangled ichthyosaurs ( dolphinlike reptiles ) , the longest - necked Jurassic - era plesiosaurus on record , and several invertebrates . Here , an artist ’s interpretation of ichthyosaur feed on a carcass of a plesiosaur .
Quick catch
Artist ’s interpretation of the Brobdingnagian pliosaur catching a pterosaur .
Fair game
Artist ’s interpretation of " Predator X " catching a smaller plesiosaur .
