Yikes! This newfound mosasaur species was a 24-foot-long sea monster

Komodo Dragons may not be the fire-breathing beast we encounter in fantasy stories but the very real, meat-eating lizard is perfectly capable of turning you into its meal even when you are running away as fast as you can. If you don't die a horrific death right away a single bite from its deadly bacteria-filled mouth can make you conclude your earthly business in a matter of days.

Now imagine you are taking a swim away from a shore infested with Komodo dragons, and a similar creature, but with flippers comes to eat you, removing all illusions of safety.

You can't catch a break, can you?

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A giant swimming lizard may indeed have been a nighmare of aquatic creatures millions of years ago as it indeed existed in pre-historic waters. This new species of what's called a mosasaur is being likened to a swimming Komodo dragon.

This study has been reported by Popular Science.

“If you put flippers on a Komodo dragon and made it really big, that’s what it would have looked like,” study co-author and Richard Gilder Graduate School PhD student Amelia Zietlow, said in a statement, as quoted in Popular Science.

The word 'moasasaurus' reported predates even the word ''dinosaur' by a good couple decades. The first mosasaur was found 200 years ago.

The newer find however, has been made by researchers in North Dakota. An extensive analysis of the skeleton of the mosasaur revealed that it was a new species.

The new specimen has flippers and is about 24 feet long. It reportedly has a shark-like tail. It has a bony ridge on the skull and that means it may have had "angry eyebrows".

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The new species has been named Jormungandr walhallaensis.

Jormungandr is a giant serpent in Norse Mythology who fought with Thor during Ragnarok, that is, 'the end of the world'.

This mosasaur swam the pre-historic oceans 80 million years ago, that means during the late Cretaceous period.

“This fossil is coming from a geologic time in the United States that we don’t really understand,” said Clint Boyd of North Dakota Geological Survey.

The study has been published in American Museum of Natural History.

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