Researchers are quite excited about the discovery of the first plesiosaur ever in Alaska. The University of Alaska’s Museum of the North has unveiled the remains of a marine fossil that was discovered in the Talkeetna Mountain Range.

The discovered fossil is of an elasmosaur, which is classified as a plesiosaur. Researchers have affirmed that it is basically not a dinosaur, as it did not walk on land. As per the researchers, the creature had an extremely long neck, paddle-like legs and was an underwater species that had roamed earth during the Late Cretaceous period, about 70 million years ago.

As mentioned above, the creature had a very long neck, which measures over 14 meters. The researchers think that it may be a new species of the elasmosaur. The team was aware of the physical traits of plesiosaur, but the new discovery has helped widen their knowledge base with regard to the species.

Depending on the data collected so far, it can be assumed that plesiosaurs were not regular dinosaur, as they swam in waters. Majority of the remains have been discovered and it is being considered that the species may actually be a new species of the elasmosaur.

Patrick Druckenmiller, the museum’s marine fossil expert, said, “Picture the mythical Loch Ness monster and you have a pretty good idea what it looked like”. Experts think that there could be more fossils that need to be discovered.