had scales similar to those of modern sea turtles. The 183-million-year-old, 4.5-metre-long plesiosaur fossil, known as MH7, was first excavated from a quarry near Holzmaden, Germany, in 1940 but ...

Scientists refer to that vastness of time on a geologic scale as deep time ... discoveries made within a coal mine, with fossils of giant trees embedded in the ceiling and walls.