"Fossil identified of ancient sea dragon found in Japan (December 22nd, BBC newsround)

Here comes a new rulebreaker mosasaur, Megapterygius wakayamaensis from Wakayama, south-western Japan. This new genus and species of mosasaur was established based on a largely complete, 72-million-year-old skeleton found in 2006 by Dr. A. Misaki, an expert on Cretaceous cephalopods. Megapterygius had very peculiar flipper-to-body ratios, where both its front and hind flippers were greater in length than the head. As if that wasn't strange enough, the hind flippers of the new mosasaur exceeded the front pair in length as well. Our phylogenetic analysis placed M. wakayamaensis among derived members of mosasaurine mosasaurs such as Plotosaurus bennisoni, indicating that it too likely possessed a forked tailfin. Just how Megapterygius employed these five, large hydrodynamic surfaces in maneuvering through the water has yet to be understood--for one, there exist no such analogues among aquatic vertebrates past and present that we know of! Based on the sweeping arrangement of the neural spines along the back, we also hypothesized that Megapterygius sported a dorsal fin akin to those found on today's harbor porpoises. Discoveries like this only underscore the importance of maintaining open-mindedness, whenever we face new evidence.   

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/67752945

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