In 1985, a college student was doing geological mapping in Arambury, Nuevo León, Mexico, when he stumbled upon some fossils. He numbered the fossils "UANL-FCT-R2". They look like they belong to a big guy...
The number UANL-FCT-R2
When the fossils were first discovered, they were simply measured, and local paleontologists published the data. Its owner was about 15 meters long, equivalent to the length of 1.5 buses. Perhaps the local media feel that adding a little more "material" will produce a bigger sensation. As a result, its body length has "changed" to the length of two buses connecting end to end - 18 meters.
Such a big guy can be regarded as a "prehistoric sea monster" level. Before identifying themselves, paleontologists simply gave the fossil owner the name "Alan Burleigh Monster." With a handsome name and an astonishing body shape, this monster from Alan Burleigh quickly "became popular" and became the darling of the paleontological world. So, what exactly is its true identity?
Originally , it was conceived as a dinosaur taxon that emerged late to the late evolution of plesiosaurs — the cruel slippery-toothed dinosaurs belonging to the plesiosaurs. Compared to earlier plesiosaurs, the upper dragon had a shorter neck but a longer, larger head that resembled a giant whale with turtle fins and feet.
Plesiosaur (image from the Internet)
Judging from the fossil form, the Alan Burleigh Monster seems to be still a child. If you are not yet a child and have such a body shape, how old should you be when you are an adult? Based on this, the British Radio and Television Station enlarged its body shape by several sizes, becoming 25 meters! In their famous documentary "Walking with Dinosaurs", the huge "satellite slippery tooth dragon" made a stunning appearance.
The truly well-documented, well-identified Slippery Tooth Dragon was no more than 7 meters long — the Brutal Slippery Tooth Dragon was in its early 6-meter head and weighed about 1.5 tons. The astonishing length of the Arambury Monster was too different from that, and its identity was in an awkward position.
"Turtle Whales"
While the entire paleontological world debated the length of the Aranbury Monster, the "Little Monster" waited quietly for 15 years at the burial point. In 2001, paleontologists from Germany and Mexico re-evaluated it, and the Aranbury monster finally had the opportunity to be systematically studied.
In the end, the "little monster" was assessed as 11.5 meters long and weighed about 15 tons, although it was much smaller than before, but it was still a big man. Moreover, it is not a little guy like the Slippery Tooth Dragon. At present, its classification status has not been fully determined, so it does not have a formal scientific name, and it must continue to be a "monster". However, paleontologists have previously judged the general direction is not wrong. The Arambury Monster does belong to the Upper Dragon family and is a giant reptile in the ocean.
Arambury Monster Buddha-figure (restored figure)
Today, we can probably recreate the life of the Aranbury monsters: they have large heads longer than your bed, huge mouths full of conical teeth, and prey on marine reptiles such as plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs in the shallow waters of Mexico in the late Jurassic period. The stout limbs give it a powerful explosive force. They might be able to rush to the beach, pick up some of the animals on the coast, and drag them into the water. In shallow seas, they are well-deserved rulers.
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