Nearly 60 years has passed since a fossil was discovered in the Brooks Range but it has finally been identified as a large marine dinosaur.
The current issue of Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology confirm the fossil fragments found are from a 210 million year old Ichthyosaur.
The fossil is the largest and most complete unit of an Ichthyosaur ever found in Alaska.
It was discovered in 1950 and left in place on the north face of the Brooks Range until 2002, when with the help of an Army helicopter, scientists could move it and work to identify it.
University of Alaska Fairbanks researchers said they have gained significant clues about the extinct animal’s diet based on the trace of contents left in its guts.
The ichthyosaur was known as “fish lizard”, there are over 110 known variations of that species, and the fossil found leads scientists to believe this ichthyosaur was approximately 30 feet long.
