An amateur fossil hunter hopes he has pieced together a type of sea creature never before found in Taranaki, on New Zealand's North Island.
But experts think the rocks collected in rugged bush are more likely to hold bits of a prehistoric whale - a no less impressive find.
Over 15 years, Glen Wilson has gathered 14 fragments of a massive fossilised skull, making his latest find earlier this month.
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He thinks they could be the remains of a mosasaur, a type of aquatic reptile resembling a crocodile that lived about 70 million years ago.
Four of the rocks, roughly 1.3 metres wide in total, and about the same in length, hold fragments of what Mr Wilson believes is the predator's massive skull.
He estimates the skull would have been two metres long and more than 1.5 metres wide.
"I haven't heard of a skull this big being found in New Zealand," he said.
Mr Wilson has been in touch with Te Papa Museum in Wellington, and it was suggested that he had found an example of a fossilised baleen, or toothless, whale.
These take their name from the baleen plates in their mouths, which they use to filter krill, plankton and small fish.
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But Mr Wilson is certain he can see a tooth in one of the rocks, and based on his own research he believes he is looking at a type of mosasaur.
"I am hoping it's a new species," he said.
Fossils of mosasaurs have been unearthed in New Zealand since the mid-1800s, but they are not common.
The University of Otago's website states one of the most complete mosasaur skulls, from a creature about five metres long, was discovered in the Waipara area of North Canterbury in 2004.
Examples as long as 15 metres, about the length of a bus, have been found in other parts of the world.
Mr Wilson would not give the exact location of the north Taranaki fossil site, but said he visited every year to find new pieces.
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"It's a massive area I have to search," he said. "There are two or three thousand rocks.
"I've sort of been back up over the years. There's a bit here and a bit there, with some covered up by other rocks.
"I have had all family members and a few strong friends help me, which was no mean feat as the rocks are down a steep bluff."
In 2017, Mr Wilson spoke to Stuff about his ongoing finds. At the time he also thought he may have found a whale.
But since collecting more pieces his opinion has changed.
Te Papa spokesperson Kate Camp confirmed Mr Wilson had been in touch about the find, but said no next steps were in place at the moment.
If Mr Wilson is correct, it would not be the first time that Taranaki fossils have changed scientific understanding.
In 2020, John Buchanan-Brown, Karl Raubenheimer, David Allen and Alistair Johnson were credited with discovering a new species of monk seal, Eomonachus belegaerensis, in South Taranaki.
Previously it was thought monk seals evolved in the Northern Hemisphere, but their finds, between 2009-2016, showed seals moved up from the Southern Hemisphere.
Last year, Mr Buchanan-Brown, a Stratford High School science teacher, was credited with discovering a new species of petrel.
He had found the remains, dating back 3.4 million years, embedded in rock that had fallen off a cliff face on a South Taranaki beach in 2015.
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Other South Taranaki fossil discoveries include the remains of a bird with a six-metre wingspan and teeth in its beak, and penguins as tall as doors.
Mr Buchanan-Brown said Mr Wilson had done "a hell of a job", and if he had evidence of a mosasaur it would be an "amazing discovery".
However, the rocks in that area of Taranaki are primarily Miocene, dating from about 23 million years ago, he said, whereas fossil evidence points to mosasaur becoming extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period, around 65 million years ago.
Mr Buchanan-Brown said new discoveries were coming to light all the time.
"I would encourage anyone who is out and finds something unusual to take it to their local museum," he added.
This article originally appeared on Stuff and has been republished with permission
