The ichthyosaur skeleton found at Rutland Water Nature Reserve MATTHEW POWER PHOTOGRAPHY
Gigantic dolphin-like marine reptiles once swam the seas. Now, a near complete fossilised skeleton of a 180-million-year-old ichthyosaur that measured 10 metres in length has been discovered in the UK.
The fossil is the largest and most complete ichthyosaur skeleton unearthed in the UK. It was found in the 聽near Leicester.
Joe Davis at Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust says he discovered the fossil by chance as he was working on landscaping the region. “I know lots of people have spent their lives looking for something like this and I’ve been very lucky to come across it,” he says.
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It is believed to be the first of its species, Temnodontosaurus trigonodon,聽to be found in the UK. Such fossils are typically found in North America and Germany.
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The ichthyosaur was an apex predator. This species belonged to a group聽, some 20 centimetres in diameter.
鈥淚t is a truly unprecedented discovery and one of the greatest finds in British palaeontological history,鈥 says聽, who led the fossil鈥檚 excavation.
Mary Anning discovered the first ichthyosaur fossil in about 1811 in Lyme Regis in Dorset. The long-overlooked palaeontologist聽.
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