Show Gt n nI s r I Sl S1 r J j DRAWING OF A PLESIOSAUR similar to one transferred to Dinosaur National Monument Monument for preparation tion Length was was' 7 about 15 feet Drawing courtesy of the British Museum New fossil arrives j I at Dinosaur quarry lIP In 05 Three quarters of a ton of plaster petrified bone and shale the remains of a short-necked short plesiosaur were recently transferred to Dinosaur National Monument according to Park Superintendent Cecil D. D Lewis Jr Lewis explained that plesiosaurs were paddle-limbed paddle reptiles that lived in oceans covering much of what is now North America This specimen was found at Custer Battlefield National Monument also administered by the National Park Service near Hardin in southeastern Montana CUSTER Battlefield is a national cemetery and as a backhoe was digging the remaining as burial places for deceased veterans the operator discovered a long ridge of vertebrae showing above the Ue dirt He lie immediately notified a paleontologist who excavated the fossil remains wrapped them in plastic and sent them 7 to Dinosaur Monument This specimen lived about 70 60 million years ago Lewis said As a result this animal appeared much more recently than did the million year-old year dinosaurs that we find in our quarry The specimen was transferred to Dinosaur for laboratory preparation and examination because Museum Pre Prep Floyd Tobe Wilkins has had a quarter century experience working with dinosaur fossils Lewis added that the final of the plesiosaur has not been det determined but that it would proba probably ly g go to either it r. r the Smithsonian in Washington DC D.C. or go on indefinite loan to to toa a major university Visitors to the quarry north of Jensen can see the new sea reptile in the first level at the Quarry Visitor Center daily dally from 8 am a.m. to pm p.m. r |