The skeleton, which was found on a ranch in South Dakota in 1990 and later sold for more than $8 million, has been the subject of numerous legal challenges.
Researchers said they had discovered a new line of mosasaur, a giant sea-dwelling creature that lived alongside the dinosaurs. Its name, Jormungandr walhallaensis, draws on Norse mythology.
The Ocucaje Desert, where paleontologists recently unearthed the ancient skeleton of the world’s heaviest animal, is being overtaken by human settlement.