A 33-foot-long “sea dragon” fossil was discovered in a drained lagoon in Britain. The creature, identified as Temnodontosaurus trigonodont, swam the seas 180 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
It is the biggest and most complete fossil of its kind ever discovered in the U.K. Though ichthyosaurs have been previously found in the U.K., none have been as large as this latest one, and this is the first time this particular species has been found.
Joe Davis, a conservation team leader for the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, and one of his colleagues found the ichthyosaur on the Rutland Water Nature Reserve in January 2021. Davis saw what appeared to be clay pipes sticking out of the mud, which reminded him of the vertebrae of whales and dolphins he’d found on the Hebrides.
Archaelogists excavated the fossil in August and September of 2021, and last Tuesday the discovery was featured on a British television series called “Digging for Britain.”
