Oslo - A Norwegian researcher has discovered remains of pre-historic giant lizards on the Svalbard islands north of the Arctic Circle, reports said on Thursday.
"The fossiles found include fish and swan-lizards that lived in the sea along with dinosaurs," Jorn Hurum told Norwegian news agency NTB. Researchers believe the giant lizards lived about 160 million years ago.
The fossiles were detected on the Janus Mountain.
"It is big, we haven't found the whole skeleton since it goes into the mountain side," Hurum said of the swan-lizard estimated to be 10m long, twice the size of the fish-lizards.
"The area is not larger than two football pitches and we have detected 10 skeletons. It's incredible," Hurum said. Some students stumbled on one of the skeletons two years ago. Hurum learned about it last year, and visited Svalbard some weeks ago for preliminary investigations.
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Large scale excavations would not begin until next year. At present Hurum and his team hoped for funding to protect the remains found so far from frost and freezing temperatures. - Sapa-dpa
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