The Greatest Discovery in Great Britain: Researchers excavate a dinosaur fossil of a fish

The greatest invention in Britain
Researchers excavate fish dinosaur fossil

01/10/2022 07:49 am

While routinely emptying a reservoir in the UK, British researchers make an extraordinary discovery: the 180 million year old Ichthyosaur fossil. At 10 meters long, it is the largest and most complete fossil ever found in Britain.

It is ten meters long and weighs only a ton of skull – these are the dimensions of the Ichthyosar fossil discovered by British researchers in a reservoir in the East Midlands. It is the largest and most complete fossil ever found in Britain, according to the British news agency PA.

The ichthyosaur (also known as the fish dinosaur) that was discovered while clearing part of the Rutland Reservoir is therefore about 180 million years old. “This is a significant finding nationally and internationally, but of great importance to the people of Rutland and its environs,” said Mark Evans of the British Antarctic Survey.

According to the Mirror, archaeologist Dean Lomax emphasizes the uniqueness of the discovery: “Although many Igdoser fossils have already been found in Great Britain, the Rutland Igdoser is the largest in the United Kingdom.” Two small, incomplete ichthyosaur fossils have already been discovered during the construction of the reservoir in the 1970s.

Up to a height of about 25 meters

Ichthyosaurs are marine reptiles that appeared about 250 million years ago and became extinct 100 million years ago, probably due to climate change. The dinosaurs resembled dolphins in shape, but they could grow up to about 25 meters in length.

Ichthyosaur fossils, marine reptiles, were discovered in England in the early 19th century by Mary Anning, a pioneer archaeologist on the shores of Dorset.