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A 30-year-old fossil was hiding bones from a mysterious ancient sea monster

Fossils collected in Osaka more than 30 years ago have revealed a surprise hiding in plain sight: four previously unrecognized bones from a giant Cretaceous mosasaur. Among them is the first confirmed premaxilla—the frontmost bone of the upper jaw—ever identified in a Japanese mosasaur fossil. Even more intriguing, parts of the skull show unusual anatomical features that don’t match known mosasaurs, raising the possibility that the remains belong to an entirely new species.

Published by ScienceDaily

Where: Tokyo, Japan

Exact coordinates

tokyo: 35.680, 139.690
japan: 36.200, 138.250

Read it at ScienceDaily See this on the map

A large prehistoric marine reptile swims underwater surrounded by fish and an ammonite.
A large prehistoric marine reptile swims underwater surrounded by fish and an ammonite. AI-written description This image does not appear to show the event — The image depicts a living marine reptile in an underwater scene, which does not show the event of discovering or analyzing fossils, and the specific illustration of a creature makes it non-generic.
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