Paleontologists digging in Jurassic deposits in the Ural Mountains have discovered the fossil remains of a pliosaur of Kaiju proportions. The first bone uncovered was initially though to be a femur, but then, shockingly, turned out to be just one of the tiny phalange bones from the very tip of one of the beast’s gigantic flippers.
Although more remains need to be excavated, initial estimates indicate the creature measured a full 440 feet in length and weighed an astonishing 42,000 tons.
Legendary paleo-fiction author and noted pliosaur expert Max Hawthorne was on hand, overseeing the personally-funded excavation, which also uncovered evidence suggesting the extinct filter-feeder fish Leedsicthys reached a whopping 330 feet in length and may have been a staple food source for the giant pliosaur. When asked to comment on the mind boggling size of the new Thalassophonean, tentatively named, “Ginormisaurus hawthornii,” Hawthorne quipped: “Forget the iceberg theory. THIS is what sank the Titanic!”
Happy April Fools Day! 
-Max
