Chance fossil discovery reveals ancient marine reptile (earthsky.org)
Posted by Shireen Gonzaga in Earth | February 12, 2020
In 2011, scientists worked against a rising tide to excavate a remarkable fossil on an island in southeast Alaska. Subsequent studies revealed that the fossil was a new species of thalattosaur, a marine reptile that lived more than 200 million years ago. This specimen has since been named Gunakadeit joseeae (pronounced ghu-nuh-kuh-DATE JOE-zee-ay; the first syllable’s vowel sounds like the “oo” in “good”). It’s the most complete thalattosaur skeleton ever found in North America and has added substantial new information to this little-known group of extinct reptiles.
Details of the discovery were published in the journal Scientific Reports on February 4, 2020.
It’s a wonder the fossil was ever found; the specimen was in an intertidal area at the Keku Islands, near the village of Kake. It was submerged most of the time, except during very low tides that happened for a few hours on only a few days of each year.
On one such occasion, on May 18, 2011, Jim Baichtal, a U.S. Forest Service geologist with the Tongass National Forest, was out hunting for fossils with colleagues. With him was Gene Primaky, an information technologist, who first spotted the fossil on a rocky outcrop.
The fossil turned out to be a new thalattosaur species, now called Gunakadeit joseeae. The skeleton was fully intact, except for two-thirds of its tail that was lost to erosion. Image via University of Alaska Fairbanks.
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https://earthsky.org/earth/alaskan-fossil-reveals-new-marine-reptile-species?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=a529102bf0-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_02_02_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-a529102bf0-395267821
