It is ten meters long and the skull alone weighs a ton – these are the dimensions of an ichthyosaur fossil that British researchers found in a reservoir in the East Midlands. It is the largest and most complete fossil of its kind that has ever been discovered in Great Britain, reported the British news agency PA.
The ichthyosaur discovered when part of the Rutland Water reservoir was routinely emptied is therefore around 180 million years old. “It’s a very significant discovery, both nationally and internationally, but also of paramount importance to the people of Rutland and the surrounding area,” said Mark Evans of the British Antarctic Survey.
Ichthyosaurs were reptiles that lived in the sea. They had an elongated mouth like a crocodile and huge eyes with which they could see perfectly in the depths of the seas. The predators probably fed on fish and other marine life of the time. In England, the first fossils were discovered in the early 19th century by paleontology pioneer Mary Anning on the coast of Dorset.