Are the "Nessie" in Loch Ness Some of These?

Remains Of Prehistoric Sea "Monster" Found Bus-Sized Reptile May Be New Species Of Plesiosaur; Found Near Norway OSLO, Norway, Dec. 4, 2007 (CBS/AP) Remains of a bus-sized prehistoric "monster" reptile found on a remote Arctic island may be a new species never before recorded by science, researchers said Tuesday. Initial excavation of a site on the Svalbard islands in August yielded the remains, teeth, skull fragments and vertebrae of a reptile estimated to measure nearly 40 feet long, said paleontologist Joern Harald Hurum of the Natural History Museum at the University of Oslo. "The new monster we found this year is of the same species as the one we excavated this year (and found last year) there are not two new species of large pliosaurs but one," Hurm told CBSNews.com via e-mail. His team described those 150-million-year-old remains as belonging to a short-necked plesiosaur measuring more than 30 feet - "as long as a bus ... with teeth larger than cucumbers." The short-necked plesiosaur was a voracious reptile often described as the Tyrannosaurus rex of the oceans. Mark Evans, a plesiosaur expert at the Leicester City Museums in Britain, said he [did] not know enough about the Norwegian find to comment on it specifically. But he said new types of the sea reptiles are being found regularly. "We are regularly seeing new species of plesiosaurs popping up - in a way because, in the past 10 or 15 years, there has been what we call a renaissance in plesiosaur research," Evans said by telephone. Hurum said the team had only managed to excavate a 3-yard area of the find. The Norwegian-led team plans to present more detailed findings early next year, and return to Svalbard, 300 miles north of Norway's mainland, to excavate further next year. © MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Prior story.