Fossil hunters unearth incredible ‘Rosetta Stone’ skeleton of a dinosaur that roamed Australia’s vast inland sea 100million years ago
Three amateur palaeontologists have discovered the remains of a 100- million -year-old long-necked marine reptile at an outback Queensland station. In an Australian first, the complete skeleton of an ancient plesiosaur, or extinct marine reptile, was discovered at a sprawling remote property in the McKinlay region. The rare fossil was discovered by a station owner, Cassandra, alongside fellow amateur fossil sleuths Sally and Cynthia, known as the ‘Rock Chicks’. The discovery has been described as the Rosetta Stone of marine reptile palaeontology, a reference to the ancient carved stone discovered in Egypt in 1799 and considered to hold the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics. A team of museum palaeontologists Travel led to the remote site to collect the fossil of the elasmosaur, a plesiosaur that lived alongside the dinosaurs. The Elasmosaurus lived in the Eromanga Sea, which covered large parts of inland Australia between 140 and 100million years ago. The recovery ...