FOSSILS found by an 11-year-old girl on a beach in Somerset belonged to one of the largest marine reptiles of all timeexperts believe.
Ruby Reynolds – now 15 – stumbled upon the fossilized remains of a gigantic jaw measuring more than two meters in 2020.
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She and her father, Justin Reynolds, found the piece while fossil hunting in the coastal village of Blue Anchor.
Paleontologists say the pieces are from a type of oceanic reptile called an ichthyosaur and estimate it was about 25 meters long, the size of two buses.
It was really cool to discover part of this giant ichthyosaur. I am very proud to have participated in a scientific discovery like this
Ruby Reynolds
That’s also as long as a blue whale, which would make it one of the largest marine reptiles ever recorded.
The prehistoric creature roamed the seas around 202 million years ago, in the age of the dinosaurs.
Another piece was previously found by fossil hunter Paul de la Salle in 2016 along the Somerset coast at Lilstock, which was already being studied.
“When Ruby and I found the first two pieces, we were very excited to realize that this was something important and unusual,” said Reynolds.
“When I found the back of the jaw, I was thrilled because that is one of the defining parts of Paul’s previous discovery.”
Ruby added: “It was really cool to discover part of this giant ichthyosaur. I’m really proud to have been a part of a scientific discovery like this.”
The pair contacted Dr Dean Lomax, a palaeontologist at the University of Manchester, after finding fossils.
Experts named the creature Ichthyotitan severnensis, which means Severn giant lizard fish.
Lomax said: “I was amazed by the discovery. In 2018, my team (including Paul de la Salle) studied and described Paul’s giant jaw and we hoped that one day another would come to light.
“This new specimen is more complete, better preserved and shows that we now have two of these giant bones – called surangulars – that have a unique shape and structure.
“I was very excited, to say the least.”
He added: “I was very impressed that Ruby and Justin correctly identified the find as another huge ichthyosaur jaw.
“They recognized that it matched what we described in 2018. I asked them if they would like to join my team to study and describe this fossil, including naming it.
“They jumped at the chance. Especially for Ruby, she is now a published scientist who not only found but also helped name a type of giant prehistoric reptile.
“There probably aren’t many 15-year-olds who can say that. A Mary Anning in the making, perhaps.”
The new research was published in the journal Plos One.
Why did dinosaurs die?
Here’s what you need to know…
- The extinction of the dinosaurs was a sudden mass extinction event on Earth
- It wiped out about three-quarters of our planet’s plant and animal species about 66 million years ago.
- This event marked the end of the Cretaceous period and opened the Cenozoic Era, which we are still in today.
- Scientists generally believe that a huge comet or asteroid about 14 kilometers wide collided with Earth, devastating the planet.
- This impact is said to have triggered a prolonged “impact winter”, seriously damaging plant life and the food chain that depended on it.
- More recent research suggests that this impact “ignited” massive volcanic activity, which also led to the extinction of life.
- Some research has suggested that dinosaur numbers were already declining due to climate change at the time.
- But a study published in March 2019 claims that dinosaurs were likely “thriving” before the extinction event.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
