A 94-million-year-old marine reptile was discovered by a Florida university professor and a research team during an archaeological dig in Utah.
University of North Florida (UNF) faculty member Dr. Barry Albright and a research team from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) were digging in the National Park Service Glen Canyon National Recreation Area of southern Utah, where they found the fossil of a mosasaur, a marine reptile believed to have swam the seas during the Cretaceous Period, UNF said in a news release Monday. (RELATED: 2 New Dinosaur Species Discovered, Nearly Size Of Blue Whale)
A university professor and his team discovered a 94-million-year old fossil in Utah that could help provide new evolutionary information for a creature that swam the oceans during the time of the dinosaurs. https://t.co/Mp0KvqwyJO
— WILX News 10 (@wilxTV) June 29, 2023
Prior to the discovery, trained volunteer Scott Richardson was working under Dr. Albright searching for fossils of marine animals that once inhabited a large body of water that covered the middle of North America during the Late Cretaceous Period, UNF noted.
During Richardson’s search he found skull fragments and vertebrae of what later turned out to be an early mosasaur specimen, according to UNF.
In the next two field seasons, Dr. Alan Titus, BLM Paria River District paleontologist, led a team of BLM staff and volunteers that recovered close to 50% of the remains, which was enough to confirm the mosasaur’s identity.
This team included Steve Dahl, who was given the honor of naming the specimen. He dubbed it Sarabosaurus dahli, meaning “Dahl’s reptile of the mirage,” according to UNF.
Dr. Michael J. Polcyn of the University of Utrecht, Netherlands, and Southern Methodist University, Dallas, suggests the discovery of the mosasaur fossil may provide information on how a once small, lizard-like reptile evolved into one of the top marine predators of its time, UNF noted.