By: April Carson
When contractors began carrying out routine maintenance on a U.K. reservoir, things quickly took a turn for the worse when they discovered an enormous, 180-million-year-old ichthyosaur fossil at the bottom of the lake.
During routine draining of a lagoon island that was set for re-landscaping, staff discovered the remains in February, according to a press release from the Rutland Water Nature Reserve.
The British fossil, nicknamed the "Sea Dragon," is 10 meters long and has a skull weighing around one ton, making it the most complete and colossal skeleton of its type discovered to date in the United Kingdom.
“It's the most complete and larger than any dinosaur skeleton ever discovered in Utah, so it's a mega-finding for a lot of reasons,” paleontologist Dean Lomax, who was involved in the excavation, said to NBC News.
“It would have been at the top of the food chain during this time period. It's a ultimate apex predator, perhaps one of the world's most enormous aquatic animals.”
Workers with the nearby University of Wyoming's museum, who were conducting field surveys in an area that had previously been logged, came across the enormous fossil while examining the mud. They discovered what appeared to be pipes sticking up out of the mud and decided it might be bones after further study.
Ichthyosaurs first appeared some 250 million years ago and died out 90 million years ago. The marine creatures ranged in size from one to 25 meters and had a similar body form to dolphins.
In the 1970s, during the building of Rutland Water, two incomplete and much smaller ichthyosaurs were discovered but it was the first complete skeleton. Researchers told CNN that they also found vertebrae from several other ichthyosaurs during the main excavation.
In August and September of last year, a team of renowned paleontologists from throughout the United Kingdom meticulously dug up the remains of this enormous skeleton.
“It is a genuinely unanticipated discovery, and one of the most significant finds in British paleontological history,” Lomax added.
BBC Two's Digging For Britain will air footage from the excavation of King Richard III's bones on Tuesday.
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About the Blogger:
April Carson is the daughter of Billy Carson. She received her bachelor's degree in Social Sciences from Jacksonville University, where she was also on the Women's Basketball team. She now has a successful clothing company that specializes in organic baby clothes and other items. Take a look at their most popular fall fashions on bossbabymav.com
To read more of April's blogs, check out her website! She publishes new blogs on a daily basis, including the most helpful mommy advice and baby care tips! Follow on IG @bossbabymav
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