Justdroppedin
02-21-2025, 01:06 PM
that lived between 250 and 90
million years ago has been uncovered in Rutland, England. Measuring
10 meters (33 feet) long, this Ichthyosaur is the largest specimen of its
kind ever found in the U.K. These giant predators once dominated prehistoric seas.
An employee of the Rutland Water Nature Reserve in the United Kingdom accidentally discovered the fossil of a huge "sea dragon" (ichthyosaur).
Joe Davis, the team leader for conservation at Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, told the BBC that he had been working on the project since February last year and initially thought he had found "a dinosaur."
Ultimately, what he had seen was not a dinosaur, but the fossilised remains of a huge marine predator called an ichthyosaur , measuring 10 metres in length and the largest specimen ever found in the United Kingdom.
"I looked down at what looked like rocks or ridges in the mud and thought it looked organic, a bit different . Then I saw something that looked like a jaw," Davis told the BBC.
After the man called the city council, a team of paleontologists was dispatched to the area and concluded that the fossil belonged to an ichthyosaur, a species that can grow up to 25 metres long and that lived between 250 and 90 million years ago.
Dean Lomax, a palaeontologist at the University of Manchester, called the find "truly unprecedented" because of its size and called it "one of the great discoveries in the history of British palaeontology".
"We usually think of ichthyosaurs and other marine reptiles as being found along the Jurassic coast in Dorset or the Yorkshire coast, where many are exposed by eroding cliffs . Here in an inland location it is very unusual ," the expert told the BBC.
This is the largest and most complete skeleton of its kind found to date in the UK and is also believed to be the first ichthyosaur of its species (named Temnodontosaurus trigonodon) found in the country.
Rutland is located almost 50 kilometres from the coast, although 200 million years ago the area was covered by water.
https://i.imgur.com/rbaloy8.jpeg
million years ago has been uncovered in Rutland, England. Measuring
10 meters (33 feet) long, this Ichthyosaur is the largest specimen of its
kind ever found in the U.K. These giant predators once dominated prehistoric seas.
An employee of the Rutland Water Nature Reserve in the United Kingdom accidentally discovered the fossil of a huge "sea dragon" (ichthyosaur).
Joe Davis, the team leader for conservation at Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, told the BBC that he had been working on the project since February last year and initially thought he had found "a dinosaur."
Ultimately, what he had seen was not a dinosaur, but the fossilised remains of a huge marine predator called an ichthyosaur , measuring 10 metres in length and the largest specimen ever found in the United Kingdom.
"I looked down at what looked like rocks or ridges in the mud and thought it looked organic, a bit different . Then I saw something that looked like a jaw," Davis told the BBC.
After the man called the city council, a team of paleontologists was dispatched to the area and concluded that the fossil belonged to an ichthyosaur, a species that can grow up to 25 metres long and that lived between 250 and 90 million years ago.
Dean Lomax, a palaeontologist at the University of Manchester, called the find "truly unprecedented" because of its size and called it "one of the great discoveries in the history of British palaeontology".
"We usually think of ichthyosaurs and other marine reptiles as being found along the Jurassic coast in Dorset or the Yorkshire coast, where many are exposed by eroding cliffs . Here in an inland location it is very unusual ," the expert told the BBC.
This is the largest and most complete skeleton of its kind found to date in the UK and is also believed to be the first ichthyosaur of its species (named Temnodontosaurus trigonodon) found in the country.
Rutland is located almost 50 kilometres from the coast, although 200 million years ago the area was covered by water.
https://i.imgur.com/rbaloy8.jpeg