Enormous sea dragon fossil from 180 million years ago discovered in England

This ichthyosaur would have been some 33 feet (10 meters) long when it lived about 180 million years ago.

This ichthyosaur would have been some 33 feet (10 meters) long when it lived about 180 million years ago.(Image credit: Courtesy of Anglian Water)

The remains of a monstrous, 33-foot-long (10 meters) “sea dragon” that swam in the seas when dinosaurs were alive some 180 million years ago have been unearthed on a nature reserve in England. The behemoth is the biggest and most complete fossil of its kind ever discovered in the U.K.

“It is a truly unprecedented discovery and one of the greatest finds in British palaeontological history,” excavation leader Dean Lomax, a paleontologist and visiting scientist at the University of Manchester, said in a statement

Though many such ichthyosaurs have been found in the U.K., none have been as large as the current discovery.

Related: 10 coolest non-dinosaur fossils unearthed in 2021

Ichthyosaurs are an extinct order, or large group, of marine reptiles that evolved in the Triassic period about 250 million years ago and disappeared from the fossil record 90 million years ago, in the late Cretaceous period. They had long snouts and looked similar to modern-day dolphins.

The newly discovered fossil belonged to a large species of ichthyosaur called Temnodontosaurus trigonodon — the first time this species has appeared in the U.K. Joe Davis, a conservation team leader for the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, found the ichthyosaur on the Rutland Water Nature Reserve in the East Midlands in January 2021, according to the statement.

Davis was walking across a drained lagoon with Paul Trevor, who also works on the reserve for the trust, when he saw what appeared to be clay pipes sticking out of the mud and remarked to Trevor that they looked like vertebrae. Davis was familiar with sea creature bones, having previously found whale and dolphin skeletons while working on the Hebrides, a series of islands off northwest Scotland.

“We followed what indisputably looked like a spine and Paul discovered something further along that could have been a jawbone,” Davis said. “We couldn’t quite believe it.”

Archaeologists excavated the fossil between August and September in 2021. The discovery will be featured on a British television series called “Digging for Britain,” which airs in the U.K. on Tuesday (Jan. 11) on BBC Two.

Archaeologists are still studying and conserving the ichthyosaur fossil and scientific papers about the discovery will be published in the future, according to the statement, though no timeframe was given.

Originally published on Live Science.

Patrick Pester

Patrick Pester is a staff writer for Live Science. His background is in wildlife conservation and he has worked with endangered species around the world. Patrick holds a master’s degree in international journalism from Cardiff University in the U.K. and is currently finishing a second master’s degree in biodiversity, evolution and conservation in action at Middlesex University London.

Note: This article have been indexed to our site. We do not claim legitimacy, ownership or copyright of any of the content above. To see the article at original source Click Here

Related Posts
Nová štúdia: Topenie permafrostu v Arktíde ohrozuje celý svet thumbnail

Nová štúdia: Topenie permafrostu v Arktíde ohrozuje celý svet

Topenie večne zamrznutej pôdy v Arktíde, ktoré môže uvoľniť obrovské množstvo skleníkových plynov, ohrozuje nielen miestnu infraštruktúru, ale aj celú planétu. Podľa agentúry AFP to vyplýva z novej štúdie, ktorú tento týždeň zverejnil odborný časopis Nature. Permafrost, ktorý bežne ani v lete nerozmŕza, pokrýva tridsať miliónov kilometrov štvorcových planéty, z toho približne polovicu v Arktíde.…
Read More
Heat pumps outsold gas furnaces again last year — and the gap is growing thumbnail

Heat pumps outsold gas furnaces again last year — and the gap is growing

This story was originally published by Canary Media. Heat pumps outsold gas furnaces. Again. According to data from the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute released last week, Americans bought 21 percent more heat pumps in 2023 than the next-most popular heating appliance, fossil gas furnaces. That’s the biggest lead heat pumps have opened up over conventional furnaces in the two decades of data
Read More
HDMI vs. Mini HDMI vs. Micro HDMI: What’s the Difference? thumbnail

HDMI vs. Mini HDMI vs. Micro HDMI: What’s the Difference?

Kabardins photo/Shutterstock.comThe HDMI standard has established itself as a mainstay of the post-HD digital age. While new versions have arrived and speeds have increased, the connectors have remained the same since their initial introduction. So what’s the difference between standard HDMI, Mini HDMI, and Micro HDMI? What Is HDMI? To understand the different varieties of…
Read More
Webb telescope unfurls diamond-shaped sunshield thumbnail

Webb telescope unfurls diamond-shaped sunshield

EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated with one-day delay in sunshield tensioning. Artist’s concept of the James Webb Space Telescope, as it appeared after opening the mission’s five-layer sunshield. Credit: NASAFlying outbound from Earth at a distance of more than 400,000 miles, the James Webb Space Telescope extended two booms Friday and unfurled the mission’s five-layer sunshield to the…
Read More
Extreme Cold Snaps Could Get Worse as Climate Warms thumbnail

Extreme Cold Snaps Could Get Worse as Climate Warms

January 22, 20243 min readClimate instability could be distorting the polar vortex, causing cold air outbreaksBy Mathew Barlow & The Conversation USA pedestrian navigates a snow-covered sidewalk on January 09, 2024 in Iowa City, Iowa. The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research.Extremely cold Arctic air and
Read More
Index Of News
Consider making some contribution to keep us going. We are donation based team who works to bring the best content to the readers. Every donation matters.
Donate Now

Subscription Form

Liking our Index Of News so far? Would you like to subscribe to receive news updates daily?

Total
0
Share