Video shows fossil discovery of Jurassic giant, Britain’s largest ‘sea dragon’

The fossilized skeleton of a giant ichthyosaur, or “sea dragon”, has been described as the “palaeontological discovery of a lifetime” by a team at the Rutland Water Nature Reserve.

The Jurassic giant was found last year by Joe Davis, Rutland Water Conservation team leader, the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust said on January 10, 2022 with the site excavated by scientists and volunteers during the summer.

The video above, released by Anglian Water, which manages the reserve in partnership with the wildlife trust, shows the excavation of the site in August 2021.

Ichthyosaurs first appeared approximately 250 million years ago and went extinct around 90 million years ago. The marine reptiles could grow to 27 yards in length.

The remains at the Rutland site are about 180 million years old, according to the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, and measured nearly 11 yards in length, with a skull that weighs approximately one ton.

“It is a truly unprecedented discovery and one of the greatest finds in British palaeontological history,” the leader of the excavation, Dr. Dean Lomax, said.

This story was originally published January 12, 2022 at 1:58 PM with the headline "Video shows fossil discovery of Jurassic giant, Britain’s largest ‘sea dragon’."