During the excavations, more than 30 thousand fossil remains were discovered, including teeth, bones, and other fragments of extinct marine reptiles, amphibians, fish, and sharks. The long-awaited results of the investigations were recently published by a group of Scandinavian paleontologists from the Natural History Museum at the University of Oslo and the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. Stratigraphic dating established the age of the Svalbard bone bed at approximately 249 million years, indicating the revival of complex ecosystems just three million years after the largest extinction event. A comprehensive comparative analysis confirmed that the Svalbard site is one of the richest accumulations of marine vertebrate species from the beginning of the dinosaur era.
About the Author
