Monster of Aramberri

The "Monster of Aramberri" is an informal name given to a fossil skeleton of a very large pliosaur since numbered as UANL-FCT-R2, of which the first remains were discovered in 1985 near the town of Aramberri, Mexico. In scientific literature, some authors also refer to it as the Aramberri pliosaur or the Aramberri specimen. Initially interpreted as a dinosaur in 1988, it was formally reidentified as a marine reptile of the family Pliosauridae in a short 2001 publication. Initially, only two concretions containing the animal's fossils were discovered, with one of the two—containing the fossils of a rostrum and teeth—later noted as lost in the first in-depth study conducted on the specimen in 2003. During the 2000s, a new excavation campaign unearthed several additional fossils of the animal. Subsequently, most of these fossils were sent to Karlsruhe State Museum of Natural History, Germany, to be prepared, before returning them in 2012 to the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, where they are mainly stored. Another significant portion of the fossils are currently stored in the Desert Museum of Saltillo. The "Monster of Aramberri" is one of the largest pliosaurs ever discovered, but estimates of its size have dropped considerably over the years. Initial estimates set a length of around 15 m (49 ft) based on the assumption that it represents a juvenile, with maximum proposed length estimates up to 18 m (59 ft). Its informal attribution to Liopleurodon by the BBC was linked with the massively over-sized, 25 m (82 ft) long depiction of this genus in the BBC documentary series Walking with Dinosaurs, though the specimen itself wasn't part of the inspiration behind the series' portrayal. More recent, accurate size estimates have since suggested that the specimen likely measures around 10–11 m (33–36 ft) long in total. Nevertheless, the animal would have an approximately 3 m (9.8 ft) long mandible, and the large teeth, since lost, would have possessed two sharp edges. The specimen is viewed as a representative of the Thalassophonea, a derived clade of pliosaurids characterized by a short neck and a large, elongated skull. The gastralia (abdominal ribs) of the Aramberri pliosaur possess traits that could be diagnostic for a distinct pliosaurid lineage that may soon be described. In the trunk, the Aramberri pliosaur preserves fossils of what appears to be an ichthyosaur, suggesting that this was prey consumed before it died. Two known cranial fragments of the animal also preserve bite marks that would have been made by another, more imposing pliosaur. The La Caja Formation, where the "Monster of Aramberri" was discovered, contains abundant marine fossils from a shallow environment dating from the Kimmeridgian stage of the Late Jurassic. It shared its habitat with a variety of other animals, including invertebrates, fish, thalattosuchians, ichthyosaurs, and other plesiosaurs.

History of discovery

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