Scientists uncover 71 million-year-old dinosaur fossils during Antarctic expedition

YEREVAN, MAY 6, ARMENPRESS. A team of scientists from around the world have uncovered more than a ton of fossils and dinosaur remains while on an extremely frosty expedition to Antarctica, reports ABC.

Fossils from the end of the age of dinosaurs, some of which were estimated to be 71 million years old, were discovered including many marine reptile remains.

"[We found] things like plesiosaurs and mosasaurs — a type of marine lizard made famous by the recent film Jurassic World," said Dr Steve Salisbury from the University of Queensland, who took part in the mission.

"We found a lot of really great fossils," he said.

"They were all shallow marine rocks, so the majority of things we found lived in the ocean."

Dr Salisbury and the team also found fossils of birds including early ducks that lived at the end of the Cretaceous period.

The team of 12 scientists from the US, Australia and South Africa travelled to the James Ross Island area to find out more about Antarctica's dinosaurs.

The researchers ventured to the Antarctica Peninsula, as that is one of the few parts of Antarctica where rocks are exposed during summer. Those rocks are known to come from the age of dinosaurs.

They set up quadrats of 50 by 100 metres and slowly made their way through sections of earth looking at every rock.

Dr Salisbury said if their expedition inspired other people to also get into the hunt for fossils, they would be "very excited".

The team camped for almost five weeks between February and March on the heavily glaciated Vega Island, and had to hike 10 kilometres each day through mountainous terrain to reach their main field site, Sandwich Bluff.