Colymbosaurus from the Canadian Arctic

[DinoToyForum]

My latest plesiosaur paper, open access, with Lene Liebe Delsett and others:
Delsett, L.L., Smith, A.S., Ingrams, S., and Schneider, S. 2024. Boreal waterways: An Early Cretaceous plesiosaur from Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canadian Arctic and its palaeobiogeography. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 69 (4): 565–585.

I first started working on this fossil material in 2005!

https://www.app.pan.pl/archive/published/app69/app011482024.pdf

[Faelrin]

Nearly 20 years ago, wow! Congrats on the new paper.

[Patrx]

Fantastic! Thanks for sharing.
Wow, I didn't need to think about how long ago 2005 was 

[DinoToyForum]

Fantastic! Thanks for sharing.
Wow, I didn't need to think about how long ago 2005 was 

Thanks.

Tell me about it! I studied this material during a research trip to Copenhagen during my PhD in late 2005... nearly half my life ago. Talk about palaeontology taking patience and time!

[Halichoeres]

Very cool. Congrats on getting it out!

[DinoToyForum]

Very cool. Congrats on getting it out!

Thanks. This was the third paper resulting from that research visit to Denmark, so it was a productive trip! The first outcome was my first ever peer-reviewed paper back in 2007: Smith, A.S. 2007. The back-to-front plesiosaur Cryptoclidus (Apractocleidus) aldingeri from the Kimmeridgian of Milne Land, Greenland. Bulletin of the Geological Society of Denmark, 55, 1-7.
https://plesiosauria.com/pdf/Smith_2007_Greenland_plesiosaur.pdf

The second paper from that trip came the following year:
Smith, A.S. 2008. Plesiosaurs from the Pliensbachian (Lower Jurassic) of Bornholm, Denmark. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 28 (4), 1213-1217: https://plesiosauria.com/pdf/smith_2008_bornholm.pdf

[Doug Watson]

Congratulations on the paper. Sadly the specimen was legally removed from Canada before Nunavut became its own territory. Today Nunavut has fossil protection laws. Back then it was part of the Northwest Territories which incredibly still only protects archaeological finds.

[Brocc21]

Congratulations on the paper. Is there any future chance of of a Colymbosaurus doctoradmini?

[DinoToyForum]

Congratulations on the paper. Is there any future chance of of a Colymbosaurus doctoradmini?

Ha, well, it's bad form to name a species after oneself.

We did consider whether this specimen could be a new species, but it's a bit too scrappy to be certain. Indeed, although we make a strong case for referring it to Colymbosaurus, I could see Colymbosaurus potentially being teased apart in a future systematic revision of the genus. Such a revision was beyond the scope of this particular project.