An international team of scientists have uncovered a treasure trove of ancient fossils in one of the world's most remote locations, some dating back to up to 71 million years old.
Photos from the trip don't immediately bring to mind Antarctica -- instead of the white vastness that's usually seen, the trip took place on Antarctic Peninsula, one of the few regions with exposed rock in the summer.
Among the 12-strong team were South Africans, Americans and Australians, including University of Queensland's Dr Steve Salisbury.
He says they found a number of great fossils on the trek, mostly between 67 million and 71 million years old.
Most of what the research team found had initially dwelled in the ocean, including remains from dinosaurs such as the plesiosaur.
A helicopter was used to extract plesiosaur remains on Sandwich Bluff (University of Queensland / Flickr)
"We did find a lot of marine reptile remains, so things like plesiosaurs and mosasaurs -- a type of marine lizard made famous by the recent film Jurassic World," Dr Salisbury says.
The team faced a 5km hike each way from their camp on Vega Island to the main field site on Sandwich Bluff.
It was a research trip that had been attempted many times before, but Dr Salisbury says previously sea ice locked them out from the land.
Now that they've been there, the research team found even more land they want to check out.
The camp during a snow storm (University of Queensland / Flickr)
"It was so great to finally get there and have a full blown expedition," Dr Salisbury says.
"We found a lot of new ground to continue the search, so we'd all really love to get back down there at some point soon."
The fossils are currently in Chile but for further study they'll be shifting to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
A collection of ammonites found (University of Queensland / Flickr)
For the larger bones, it could be up to two years before results come out.
But Dr Salisbury isn't fazed.
"What we found or didn't find isn't as important as the fact that we were actually there, trying to do it," he says.
"If that inspires other people to get into the hunt for fossils, then I'll be very excited."
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