''Predator X'' is a 2009 television special on the

History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...

. The show documents the excavation of a giant

pliosaur Pliosauroidea is an extinct clade of plesiosaurs, known from the earliest Jurassic to early Late Cretaceous. They are best known for the subclade Thalassophonea, which contained crocodile-like short-necked forms with large heads and massive toot ...

on an island in the Norwegian

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), previously known as Spitsbergen or Spitzbergen, is a Norway, Norwegian archipelago that lies at the convergence of the Arctic Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean. North of continental Europe, mainland Europe, it lies about midway be ...

archipelago. The special follows Dr.

Jørn Hurum Jørn Harald Hurum (born November 4, 1967) is a Norway, Norwegian paleontologist and popularizer of science. He is a vertebrate paleontologist and holds an associate professor position at the Natural History Museum at the University of Oslo, Natur ...

and a team of paleontologists from the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

as they excavate the site. The specimen — claimed by Hurum at the time to be a new species — had not received a taxonomic classification by the time of the television special and was, therefore, codenamed " Predator X". The team initially called their discovery "The Monster", and the nickname has been used extensively by the media. The initial discovery was made in 2006, as part of a find of dozens of

and

plesiosaur The Plesiosauria or plesiosaurs are an Order (biology), order or clade of extinct Mesozoic marine reptiles, belonging to the Sauropterygia. Plesiosaurs first appeared in the latest Triassic Period (geology), Period, possibly in the Rhaetian st ...

specimens. First estimates were of nearly 15 m (49 ft) in length, "The Monster" is the largest pliosaur skeleton ever discovered, considerably larger than ''

Kronosaurus ''Kronosaurus'' ( ) is an extinct genus of large short-necked pliosaur that lived during the Aptian to Albian Stage (stratigraphy), stages of the Early Cretaceous in what is now Australia. The first known specimen was received in 1899 and consis ...

''. This estimate was later downsized. In 2012, it was given the taxonomic name '' Pliosaurus funkei''.

References

External links

* 2000s American television specials History (American TV channel) original programming Prehistory of the Arctic Documentary films about prehistoric life 2009 television specials {{sci-documentary-stub