Argentinian plesiosaur specialist Dr Jose Patricio O'Gorman has been studying the Shag Point plesiosaur at the Otago Museum, as international scientific interest in New Zealand's largest-known animal fossil continues to grow.
Emma Burns, the museum's natural science research and interpretation co-ordinator, said museum staff were ''excited that one of our most popular displays is the focus of such important international research''.
The latest research, undertaken last week, would also help discover the Shag Point plesiosaur's place ''in the wider plesiosaur family tree'', she said.
And Dr O'Gorman was delighted to see the 70 million-year-old plesiosaur fossil first hand, having been wanting to see it for several years.
His visit to Dunedin followed a recent trip to South America by Otago University palaeontologist Prof Ewan Fordyce.
''It's great to have Jose here,'' Prof Fordyce said.
It was beneficial to gain insights flowing from Dr O'Gorman's knowledge of other ancient plesiosaur finds in South America and others in the Antarctic.
An Oxford University scientist, Dr Roger Benson, had recently visited the fossil in Dunedin and a Chilean researcher, Rodrigo Otero, was coming next month.
Mr Otero will compare the Dunedin fossil with recently described plesiosaurs found in the Antarctic, Argentina and central Chile.
The 6.5m-long Dunedin fossil is the sole known representative of a new genus and species, Kaiwhekea katiki, and is on long-term loan from the Otago University geology department, after being found at Shag Point in 1982.
The plesiosaur has been displayed at the museum since 2002.
