A giant pliosaur skull, the ‘T-Rex of the ocean’, is discovered in the United Kingdom

2023-12-11 11:51:05

Updated Monday, December 11, 2023 – 10:51

The skull, found on the Jurassic Coast of Dorset, measures more than two meters and is in excellent condition.

Recreation of a pliosaur.MARK WITTONUNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTHPaleontology A new dinosaur discovered in Castellón enriches the Spanish archaeological heritage

Approximately 150 million years ago, the oceans were dominated by a ferocious marine reptile, the pliosaurio. This hunter, known as the ‘ocean super predator’It was twelve meters long, had four large fins and a skull with 130 teeth. Precisely one of the largest and best preserved skulls that have ever been found has been discovered in United Kingdomas reported by the BBC.

The discovery, made by chance by Phil Jacobs when I was walking on the beach, being the centerpiece of a documentary David Attenborough that the British network will broadcast on New Year’s Day.

And it was by chance because Jacobs stumbled upon the creature’s fossilized snout when he was walking along the beach of the Baha de Kimmeridgein the Dorset Jurassic Coast. I quickly phoned his friend on Doctor Steve Etches, fossil expert and collector. After a search, they determined that the rest of the skull must be on a cliff behind where they had found the first piece of the reptile.

After locating the rest of the skull on the cliff face, they had to work while hanging from ropes at 15 meters above sea level and using a huge deployable tarp to extract the bones with the greatest integrity possible. When they succeeded, they masterfully reconstructed the piece, which Steve Etches will exhibit next year in his museum in Kimmeridge.

Pliosaurs were dinosaurs that reigned in the seas of Europe, Australia, Asia and North America. It had a jaw that had a force of 33,000 newtons, with which it fed on other dinosaurs such as plesiosaurs, large dolphins and giant squids. The triangular shape of its 130 teeth allowed it to pierce the flesh and remove its fangs quickly in order to carry out several consecutive attacks.

“The animal would have been so efficient that I think it would have been able to hunt down anything that was unlucky enough to be in its space,” he told the BBC. Andre Rowe, paleologist at the University of Bristol. “I have no doubt that this was something like an underwater T-Rex,” he added.