Scientists have found an earlier unknown sea pangolin species of the Upper Cretaceous period in the Orenburg Region.

      The paleontological finds are more than 65 million years old, as reported by Vladimir Yefimov, Chairman of the Ulyanovsk Department of the All-Russian Paleontological Society.

      “Quite well preserved skeleton fragments of earlier unknown Plesiosaurus species of the Upper Cretaceous have been unearthed in a unique field in the Orenburg Region” - Vladimir Yefimov told.

      Found fragments of the skull, teeth, backbone, shoulder and pelvic belt, forelimbs and hind limbs made it possible for scientists to establish that these were 4 to 7 meter long pangolins with a big head and a massive neck.

      The newly discovered Plesiosaurus species will be namedPolicotilus Sopotsko after the chief author of this find - the head of Young Geologists Club of Orsk city, the geologist Galina Sopotsko.