Nessie's relatives 'found in Arctic'

Norwegian researchers on a remote Arctic island have recovered rare fossil remains of two giant marine reptiles, one of them reminiscent of the fabled Loch Ness monster.

The well-preserved fossils of the extinct ichthyosaur and plesiosaur were found on the Svalbard islands, north of the Norwegian mainland.

Team member Hans Arne Nakrem said “The find is really quite unique. What is completely new is that we have the cranium of an ichthyosaur for the first time.”

Plesiosaurs were adapted to life in the ocean, with very long necks and tails, plump bodies and legs that had evolved into flippers. They could be up to 50 feet long.

“They look like we imagine Nessie of Loch Ness,” said Joern Hurum, a dinosaur expert who led the team. He said with their huge jaws they were at the top of the food chain and were the killing machines of the sea.

“Their jaws could cut anything else into small pieces,” Hurum said from Svalbard.

Ichthyosauria, which is Latin for “fish reptiles”, looked like fish, with a dorsal fin, tail fin and legs that worked like paddles.

The animals lived roughly 160 million years ago, and became extinct about 65 million years ago.