The fossilised skull of a colossal “sea monster” has been unearthed along the UK’s Jurassic Coast. The ferocious predator, which is called a pliosaur, terrorised the oceans 150 million years ago. The skull is 2.4m long, and experts say it could belong to one of the largest pliosaurs ever found: measuring up to 16m in length… and it will now be scientifically analysed, prepared and then place on public show at Dorset County Museum. Palaeontologist Richard Forrest told the BBC: “I had heard rumours that something huge was turning up. But seeing this thing in the flesh, so to speak, is just jaw dropping. It is simply enormous.”

Pliosaurs were a form of plesiosaur, a group of giant aquatic reptiles that dominated the seas around the same time that dinosaurs roamed the Earth. They had small necks and huge, crocodilian-like heads that contained immensely powerful jaws and a set of huge, razor-sharp teeth. And based on their length of 2.4m (7.9ft), it is estimated that the creature would have measured between 10 and 16m (33-52ft) from tip to tail, and would have weighed in at a hefty 7-12 tonnes. – BBC.

Read the full tale here, as well as the discovery of the Norwegian monster pliosaur, found in the Arctic island chain of Svalbard in 2006.

Makes you wonder about those tales of the Nephilims, Centaurs, Minotaurs, Fauns, Unicorns, Satyrs,… Doesn’t it? Given the consideration that the Jurassic Coast contains a treasure trove of fossils, spanning 185 million years of geological history, who knows what will be learned next.

Speaking of geology, confirmation is now coming in that NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has learned 99 percent pure ice water in the sub-surface of the planet Mars.

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has revealed sub-surface water ice that may be 99 percent pure, halfway between the North Pole and the equator on the Red Planet. “We knew there was ice below the surface at high latitudes of Mars, but we find that it extends far closer to the equator than you would reckon, based on Mars’ climate today,” said Shane Byrne of the University of Arizona, a member of the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, which runs the high-resolution camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. “The other surprising discovery is that ice exposed at the bottom of these meteorite impact craters is so pure,” Byrne said. – ZeeNews.

More HERE.

So, was Mars once capable of sustaining some form of life? Does it now? If so, what type of life form? Extraterrestrials? If liquid water exists there, did life develop there? Did humans have an ancient history on the red planet? What form of life is exactly required to inhabitant the martian surface and sub-surface?

A plethora of questions. Maybe the answers will be revealed in the next discoveries. Stay tuned.