Prepared ‘Kreis Hoxter plesiosaur’ is new taxon

I previously reported (see here and here) on the plesiosauroid skeleton discovered in 2007 in Kreis Hoxter, near Bielefeld, Northern Germany. The specimen was excavated from the Pliensbachian (Lower Jurassic) age strata in ten large blocks by the LWL-Museum für Naturkunde, Münsterand. A major proportion of the fossil has now been prepared by Manfred Schlösser: the skeleton is almost complete and quite spectacular.

In 2010 the ‘Kreis Hoxter plesiosaur’ was displayed in the Römisch Germanisches exhibition in the Köln Museum (The photos here show the specimen as displayed) and in April 2011 the specimen will comprise part of the new archaeological and palaeontological exhibition “Fundgeschichten” in the Westfälische Museum für Archäologie in Herne. German press reports early in 2011 (see here for example) announced that the ‘Kreis Hoxter plesiosaur’ represents a new taxon and a description is currently in press.

Thanks to Sönke Simonsen for information and photographs.