Update on the ‘Kreis Hoxter plesiosaur’

I reported in Summer 2007 on a four-metre-long plesiosaur skeleton that was discovered in Kreis Hoxter, near Bielefeld, Northern Germany by amateur collector Sönke Simonsen. I can now provide a short update on the fossil. The specimen was successfully excavated in ten large blocks by the LWL-Museum für Naturkunde, Münsterand, where preparation of the skeleton is well underway. It is intended that preparation will be finished by 2011 for a new exhibition “Römisch-Germanisches Museum Köln”. For now, one block is almost complete but from the first pictures the skeleton seems to be beautifully preserved…

The tail of the ‘Kreis Hoxter plesiosaur’ being prepared by Manfred Schlösser in the LWL-Museum. (Image by “LWL/Oblonczyk”)

The partially prepared tail showing the caudal ribs and chevrons.

Detail of the front of the block, the diameter of the vertebra is about 6.5cm.

For more information about this specimen see the previous post: here

Thanks to Sönke Simonsen for permission to use the photographs.