The gigantic skull of a prehistoric sea monster has been discovered in the cliffs of Dorset's Jurassic Coast in England. The skull, described by CNN as “remarkably well-preserved,” belongs to a pliosaur, a marine reptile that lived around 150 million years ago. Pliosaurs lived in the Earth’s oceans at a time when dinosaurs roamed the land.
The 6 feet and 5 inches-long fossil provides fascinating insights into the life of this ancient sea monster.
Originally discovered in 2022, the fossil will now take centre stage in the upcoming BBC documentary “Attenborough and the Jurassic Sea Monster.” The documentary will air on BBC One on New Year’s Day.
“It's one of the best fossils I've ever worked on. What makes it unique is it's complete,” palaeontologist Steve Etches told BBC News. “The lower jaw and the upper skull are meshed together, as they would be in life. Worldwide, there's hardly any specimens ever found to that level of detail. And if they are, a lot of the bits are missing, whereas this, although it's slightly distorted - it's got every bone present,” Etches, who helped uncover the fossil, added.
A fascinating fossil discovery
The pliosaur fossil was discovered in Dorset by Steve Etches' friend, Phil Jacobs.
Jacobs stumbled upon the tip of the pliosaur’s snout while walking on southern England's famous World Heritage Jurassic Coast.
The duo used drones to map the cliff and pinpoint the likely location of the rest of the fossil. From the beginning, they were “quite excited, because its jaws closed together which indicates (the fossil) is complete,” Etches said.
The operation to extract the rest of the fossil was a race against time – Etches and his team had a small window of time before summer storms eroded the cliffs. During the three-week operation, he and his team chiselled into the cliff while suspended in the air.
“It’s a miracle we got it out,” he said, “because we had one last day to get this thing out, which we did at 9:30 p.m.”
Apex predators
According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, pliosaurs species could grow up to 50 feet in length. These fearsome apex predators had long, razor-sharp teeth and a bite force of 33,000 newtons – which is twice the bite force of a saltwater crocodile, the creature with the most powerful jaws today.
“The animal would have been so massive that I think it would have been able to prey effectively on anything that was unfortunate enough to be in its space,” said Dr Andre Rowe from Bristol University. “I have no doubt that this was sort of like an underwater T. rex.”
The pliosaur’s meals could have included the dolphin-like ichthyosaur and a long-necked marine reptile today known as the plesiosaur.
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