New Delhi

The remains of a creature dating back almost 100 million years were found in Queensland, Australia and the discovery has come as great news for paleontologists. Experts have already drawn comparisons with Rosetta Stone – the three scripts which led to the decryption of ancient hieroglyphics in Egypt – and they believe that the remains can prove crucial in understanding the existence of new species of prehistoric marine creatures. According to ABC News, the fossilised remains belonged to the long-necked plesiosaur, known as an Elasmosaur – the first of its kind.

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Dr Espen Knutsen, the senior curator of palaeontology at the Queensland Museum, said that a discovery like this is extremely rare and further tests will be conducted on the remains. While Elasmosaur skulls have been found, this is the first instance where it was connected to the body.

The Elasmosaur were around eight metres in length, according to existing research.

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“A lot of it is neck,” Knutsen told The Guardian.

“At least half, if not two-thirds of the entire body length [of an Elasmosaur] is mostly neck.”

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While the remains were found in good condition, the experts believed the creature was “bitten into half” by some kind of an apex predator – their guess being a Kronosaur. That will be the working theory for the scientists as they look to understand the creatures of that time period.

The skull and body were carefully preserved by the team of researchers and the initial tests conducted on them will include a study of the teeth and inspection of their flippers.