An artist's impression shows the 15 metre long 'sea monster' found in Arctic Norway that was the biggest of its kind known to science.
The fossil of a 15-metre-long "sea monster" found in Arctic Norway was the biggest of its kind known to science with dagger-like teeth in a mouth large enough to bite a small car, researchers say.
The 150-million year old dinosaur-era pliosaur, a fierce marine reptile, was about 5m longer than the previous pliosaur record holder found in Australia.
"It's a new species and the biggest proven pliosaur," Joern Hurum, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in Oslo who led the expedition to dig up the fossil on the archipelago of Svalbard 1300km from the North Pole.
The Museum said that pliosaurs were the top marine predators of the Jurassic era, preying upon squid-like animals, fish, and other marine reptiles.
"The pliosaur is not the biggest sea monster but it's probably the most fierce," Hurum said, adding the fossil has jagged teeth the size of cucumbers. The front flipper of our pliosaur alone is three metres long," he said.
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