Jingszo !

A group of fossils of elasmosaurs—some of the most famous in North America—have just been formally identified as belonging to a "very odd" new genus of the sea monster, unlike any previously known.

Long-necked and measuring in at 12 meters, Traskasaura sandrae—as it is officially named today in this new study—possessed heavy, sharp, robust teeth, ideal for crushing.

Its unique suite of adaptations enabled this plesiosaur to hunt prey from above. The findings suggest that the fierce marine reptile was perhaps one of the first plesiosaur taxa to do so.

The 85-million-year-old fossils are not new to science, though, far from it.

The first (now known to be) Traskasaura fossil was discovered from Late Cretaceous rocks in 1988 along the Puntledge River on Vancouver Island.

Full paper:

A name for the Provincial Fossil of British Columbia: a strange new elasmosaur taxon from the Santonian of Vancouver Island

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14772019.2025.2489938