Gigantic Marine Reptile Fossil Found by 11-Year-Old Girl and Father
A massive jawbone found by a father-daughter fossil-collecting duo on a beach in Somerset along the English coast belonged to a newfound species that’s likely the largest known marine reptile to swim in Earth’s oceans.
Scientists consider the blue whale, which grows up to 110 feet (33.5 meters) long, to be the largest known animal ever to exist on the planet. But it’s possible that the 202 million-year-old reptile, known as an ichthyosaur or “fish lizard,” may have rivaled it in size.
The ichthyosaur’s jawbone, or surangular, was a long, curved bone at the top of the lower jaw just behind the teeth, and it measured more than 6.5 feet (2 meters) long. Researchers believe the creature, named Ichthyotitan severnensis, or “giant fish lizard of the Severn” in Latin, was more than 82 feet (25 meters) long, or the length of two city buses.
Justin and Ruby Reynolds, who live in Braunton, England, recovered the first pieces of the jawbone in May 2020 as they looked for fossils on the beach at Blue Anchor, Somerset. Ruby, 11 at the time, spotted the first chunk of bone, and then she and her dad found additional pieces together.
By Ashley Strickland.
17 notes
·
View notes
Purple Haze at Dusk
Photographed by Freddie Ardley - Instagram
5K notes
·
View notes
A female farm worker pulling flax on a farm in Yeovil, Somerset, England, ca. 1915 - by Nicholls Horace (1867 - 1941), English
718 notes
·
View notes
Bath - Thèrése Lessore 1938-43
British 1884-1945
Oil on canvas , 63.8 x 76 cm.
216 notes
·
View notes
More views of the unique inverted arches supporting Wells Cathedral
360 notes
·
View notes
Interior details - Wells Cathedral, Wells, Somerset, ENGLAND
2K notes
·
View notes
Seaspray has found some frog spawn in a waterway.
In Hestercombe Gardens, in Cheddon Fitzpaine, near Taunton, in Somerset, England.
215 notes
·
View notes
Packhorse steps and former mill by the River Frome
81 notes
·
View notes
Different tracks
Photographed by Freddie Ardley - instagram
5K notes
·
View notes
The Grotto Bar at Cheddar Caves, Somerset, England (1970s).
730 notes
·
View notes