Harvard Australian Expedition (1931–1932)

[4][5][6] The Expedition was a success, with 341 mammal, 545 amphibian, and thousands of insect specimens returning to the United States.,[4][1][7] yet its most famous legacy and find was the accidental discovery of the world's most complete skeleton of the short-necked pliosaur Kronosaurus queenslandicus.

[10][13][14] After dynamiting the nodules out of the ground (and into smaller pieces weighing approximately four tons[15][16]) with the aid of a British migrant trained in the use of explosives,[17] Scheville had the fossils shipped back to Harvard for examination and preparation.

The skull—which matched the holotype jaw fragment of K. queenslandicus—was prepared right away, but time and budget constraints put off restoration of the nearly complete skeleton - most of the bones of which remained unexcavated within the limestone blocks - for 20 years.

[10][13] However, Dr. Romer and MCZ preparator Arnold Lewis confirmed that same year in the institution's journal Breviora that "erosion had destroyed a fair fraction of this once complete and articulated skeleton...so that approximately a third of the specimen as exhibited is plaster restoration.

"[18] Furthermore, the original (real) bones are also layered in plaster; a fact that, while keeping the fossils safe, makes it difficult for paleontologists to study it - an issue which factors into the controversial question of the true size of the Kronosaurus queenslandicus.

[18] However, more recent studies, comparing fossil specimens of Kronosaurus to other pliosaurs suggests that the Harvard reconstruction may have included too many vertebrae, exaggerating the previous estimate, with the true length probably only 9 to 10.5 metres (30 to 34 ft).