Two copies of the first complete fish lizard fossil, whose original was said to have been lost during World War II, have been found.
The historic discovery has the paleontological community excited.
Interestingly, there were no known records of copies ever made of the fossil, according to the study, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science on Wednesday.
"The specimen was the first skeleton of an extinct marine reptile in the scientific literature and the most complete ichthyosaur skeleton known at the time," researchers Dean Lomax, from the University of Manchester in northwest England, and Judy Massare, from New York State University, said in their paper.
