Pliosaur arrives from Colombia
Tuesday 6 January 2004
The remains of a pliosaur
from Bogota in Colombia arrived at the Sedgwick Museum's Conservation Facility
this week, where they will be the subject of a three year study by visiting
scientist Marcela Gomez from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and our
resident marine reptile specialist Dr Leslie Noè. The specimen was transported
to the Museum with the generous support of the Friends of the Sedgwick Museum.
The bones of the pliosaur were excavated in 1967 outside Bogota and are thought to be an entirely new genus and species, previously unknown to scientists. remained forgotten in storage at the University until four years ago, when it was re-discovered by Marcela Gomez while working on her thesis.
This important Cretaceous specimen is about 130 million years old. The pieces of the reptile are preserved in three dimensions inside a series of limestone concretions. The fossilised bones will now be extracted from the rock using chisels and an acid solution to gradually dissolve the material around the fossil, leaving just the bones for detailed examination and research.
The specimen will then be described in scientific and popular literature, published in this country and in Colombia. The pliosaur will return to the University in Colombia for public display and further research.
Images:
Above left - what's in the box? The celebrity cargo arrives at the conservation
facility. Staff were anxious that the pliosaur had survived its 5500 mile
journey intact.
Above right - making the news. The team prepare to shoot a sequence for BBC
Local Evening News.
Right - Cretaceous 'killer whale'. An artist's impression of the 4m long marine
pliosaur that would have been an impressive predator in the Cretaceous oceans.
Sedgwick Museum in the news
Left: Unpacking the pliosaur pieces. Marcela Gomez and conservator Sarah Finney with reporter Jo Kent (centre), filming the report for BBC News (Tuesday 6 January 2004).