Jurassic Marine Graveyard Yields 'Monster' Fossil

M00NIE writes "A 150 million year old giant fish-like reptile has been unearthed on an Arctic island off Norway, along with many other top marine predators. The find is 'one of the most important new sites for marine reptiles to have been discovered in the last several decades.'" From the article: "'One of them was this gigantic monster, with vertebrae the size of dinner plates and teeth the size of cucumbers,' Joern Hurum, an assistant professor at the University of Oslo, told Reuters on Thursday. 'We believe the skeleton is intact and that it's about 10 meters (33 feet) long,' he told Reuters of the pliosaur, a type of plesiosaur with a short neck and massive skull. The team dubbed the specimen 'The Monster.'"

Comments

Sea monsters ARE in the Bible!

[PRMan]

Sea monsters ARE in the Bible and every ancient form of literature. It's called Leviathan. Nobody needs to "fit" anything.

1 "Can you pull in the leviathan [a] with a fishhook or tie down his tongue with a rope? 2 Can you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? 3 Will he keep begging you for mercy? Will he speak to you with gentle words? 4 Will he make an agreement with you for you to take him as your slave for life? 5 Can you make a pet of him like a bird or put him on a leash for your girls? 6 Will traders barter for him? Will they divide him up among the merchants? 7 Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears? 8 If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the struggle and never do it again! 9 Any hope of subduing him is false; the mere sight of him is overpowering. 10 No one is fierce enough to rouse him. Who then is able to stand against me? 11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me. 12 "I will not fail to speak of his limbs, his strength and his graceful form. 13 Who can strip off his outer coat? Who would approach him with a bridle? 14 Who dares open the doors of his mouth, ringed about with his fearsome teeth? 15 His back has [b] rows of shields tightly sealed together; 16 each is so close to the next that no air can pass between. 17 They are joined fast to one another; they cling together and cannot be parted. 18 His snorting throws out flashes of light; his eyes are like the rays of dawn. 19 Firebrands stream from his mouth; sparks of fire shoot out. 20 Smoke pours from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds. 21 His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from his mouth. 22 Strength resides in his neck; dismay goes before him. 23 The folds of his flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable. 24 His chest is hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone. 25 When he rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before his thrashing. 26 The sword that reaches him has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin. 27 Iron he treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood. 28 Arrows do not make him flee; slingstones are like chaff to him. 29 A club seems to him but a piece of straw; he laughs at the rattling of the lance. 30 His undersides are jagged potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge. 31 He makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment. 32 Behind him he leaves a glistening wake; one would think the deep had white hair. 33 Nothing on earth is his equal-- a creature without fear. 34 He looks down on all that are haughty; he is king over all that are proud."

Re:Sea monsters ARE in the Bible!

[advance512]

The word leviathan means sea whale in modern hebrew. I am pretty sure it has always meant this.

Even other interpretations of the word refer to crocodiles or a giant shark, never a dinosaur.

Re:Sea monsters ARE in the Bible!

[Anonymous Coward]

"His back has [b] rows of shields tightly sealed together"

As far as I know, plesiosaurs or ichthyosaurs don't have dermal scutes (i.e. boney plates in their skin) on their back. Thanks for playing.

It's possible this passage is referring to a crocodile. It would make more sense.

Re:Sea monsters ARE in the Bible!

[Yendys]

Uh, was the bible written in modern hebrew??? Word meanings change over time.

Photos

[edxwelch]

Here is an artical that includes some nice photos:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,441160, 00.html

Svalbard is a Norwegian territory

[Terje Mathisen]

Svalbard, including Spitzbergen which is the largest island, is recognized by UN as a Norwegian territory.

It does exist in a sort of legal limbo though, in that any country which signs the Svalbard treaty can go in and look for natural resources. Russia and its Soviet precursor have had a fairly large city (Barentsburg) there for decades, supporting a coal mine which is now running out.

The chief authority on Svalbard is the office of 'Sysselmannen', which is located in the main Norwegian settlement, Longyearbyen.

A few hours south (by snowmobile) of Longyearbyen is the site of the Svea mine, which is sitting on a very rich coal seam, it is currently one of the most productive (per employee) mines in the world.

Svalbard also contains the big international research station at Ny Ålesund, which is operated by the Kings Bay Company.
http://www.kingsbay.no/

Visiting Svalbard in March a couple of years ago was one of my most memorable trips ever:

http://confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=8138

Terje