It hasn’t been that long since we last heard of ichthyosaurs in online science discourse; just a few days ago, researchers reported on a major ichthyosaur find from the ancient seas of what is now Montana. Now, a research team from the United Kingdom is ready to shake things up again—and shake things up they will, given the sheer size of what they found.
“Our specimen, the ‘Rutland Ichthyosaur’ or the ‘Rutland Sea Dragon,’ is the biggest complete ichthyosaur ever found in Britain in over 200 years of collecting these things scientifically,” according to excavation lead paleontologist Dean Lomax in a statement of ScienceAlert.
This particular “sea dragon” was found just sticking out of the mud after conservationist Joe Davis, of the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Reserve, found an exposed jawbone back in February of 2021 at the Rutland Water Nature Reserve. From there, the team carefully excavated the ichthyosaur out of the mud, resulting in a truly massive 10-m (32.8-ft) long fossil, complete with an intact backbone.
Davis continued in an official statement: “The find has been absolutely fascinating and a real career highlight, it’s great to learn so much from the discovery and to think that this amazing creature was once swimming in seas above us, and now once again Rutland Water is a haven for wetland wildlife albeit on a smaller scale!”
The results of the remarkable find have yet to be published, but preliminary findings lead the find to be a 180-million-year-old ichthyosaur from the Jurassic Period. Should the findings push through peer review, the specimen will be classified as another find of Temnodontosaurus trigonodon; Temnodontosaurus roughly translates to “cutting-tooth lizard” in Greek.
Lomax later continued: “It was an honor to lead the excavation. Britain is the birthplace of ichthyosaurs – their fossils have been unearthed here for over 200 years, with the first scientific dating back to Mary Anning and her discoveries along the Jurassic Coast. Despite the many ichthyosaur fossils found in Britain, it is remarkable to think that the Rutland ichthyosaur is the largest skeleton ever found in the UK. It is a truly unprecedented discovery and one of the greatest finds in British palaeontological history.”
References
- Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust. (2022, January 10). Britain’s largest ‘sea dragon’ discovered in UK’s smallest county. https://www.lrwt.org.uk/seadragon
- Murugesu, J. (2022, January 10). UK’s largest ichthyosaur fossil was a 10-metre-long apex predator. New Scientist. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2303820-uks-largest-ichthyosaur-fossil-was-a-10-metre-long-apex-predator/
- Pester, P. (2022, January 11). Enormous sea dragon fossil from 180 million years ago discovered in England. LiveScience. https://www.livescience.com/biggest-sea-dragon-in-britain
- Watson, C. (2022, January 11). Giant ‘sea dragon’ unearthed from mud is the largest ever found in the uk. ScienceAlert. https://www.sciencealert.com/giant-sea-dragon-unearthed-from-mud-is-the-largest-ever-found-in-the-uk
