Amateur discovery is 'Missing Link'
The skeleton of a previously unknown Plesiosaur is thought to be a missing link, plugging a knowledge gap in the Cretaceous period. The find is likely to be named after its discoverer - an amateur palaeontologist from Doncaster in the north of the UK. Electrician Nigel Armstrong found the 70 million-year-old skeleton along the fossil-rich 'Dinosaur Coast' in Yorkshire, northern UK, in 2002. Even then the discovery was unusual because he found the skeleton - not fossilised remains. Plesiosaurs were water-dwelling carnivorous dinosaurs with long necks and flippers. Many believe the so-called 'Loch Ness Monster' to be a Plesiosaur. However, this find is from an era where there is an acknowledged 'gap' of some 30 million years in the fossil record - between the Jurassic and early Cretaceous periods. Because of this large gap, the reptile is entirely new to science, and deserves a new name. The Latin-esque 'Armstrongi' is a likely candidate for the creature. Mr Armstrong made the discovery after spotting the spine in some rock. 'I was pleased when I found one of the back bones at the bottom of the cliff, but when I traced the remains up to the main skeleton I was over the moon,' he told the BBC in 2002. The skeleton will go on display in Scarborough, UK, from 26 July.
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