Scientists studying the fossilised remains of a prehistoric ichthyosaur discovered in Warwickshire, have revealed its secrets for the first time using new technology.
Around 200 million years ago in what is now Warwickshire, a dolphin-like reptile died and sank to the bottom of the sea.
The ichthyosaur in question may have died millennia ago, but its skull was discovered in a British farmer’s field in 1955. The find was made on land which is now in Warwickshire, UK, but the facilities were not in place to study the remains in any great detail beyond external observation.
A new analysis of a nearly 200-million-year-old sea-monster skull has surprised scientists, but not merely because the skull was enormous — nearly 3 feet (1 meter) long — or because it was exquisitely preserved and not squashed, like many other Jurassic-period fossils are.
Remarkably, the skull is three-dimensionally preserved and contains bones that are rarely exposed.
The skull was held in the Birmingham Museums Trust for many years, until a plan was devised to study it in detail. Palaeontologists Dean Lomax and Nigel Larkin first began studying the skull as part of a project at the Thinktank Science Museum in Birmingham, where the skeleton is currently on display.
"It's taken more than half a century for this ichthyosaur to be studied and described, but it has been worth the wait," said palaeontologist Dean Lomax of the University of Manchester.
Using cutting-edge CT scanning technology, the team o scientist have been able to digitally recreate the entire skull in 3D."CT scanning allows us to look inside fossils - in this case, we could see long canals within the skull bones that originally contained blood vessels and nerves," said Dr Porro.
A 3D laser scanner is able to map a fossil and create a digital copy which can then be shared with other labs and museums using 3D printing.
After the scans the team were able to 3D-print a number of key missing pieces, including a flipper, which allowed them to complete the skeleton, a video of which has been posted by the BBC.
Coming from the Lower Jurassic period, this marine creature was a viscous carnivore, designed for stealthy and poweful hunting. Ichthyosaurs are interesting because they have many traits in common with dolphins, but are not at all closely related to those sea-dwelling mammals.
The ichthyosaur was originally identified as a common species, but after studying it in more detail, scientists identified it as a rare ichthyosaur called Protoichthyosaurus prostaxalis.
And it's not just any P. prostaxalis skull; it's the largest on record. The newly analyzed skull is almost twice as long as any other known P. prostaxalis skull, Lomax said. The fossil is at least 2.6 feet (0.8 m) long, with its lower jaw extending 2.8 feet (0.87 m). Given that P. prostaxalis' skull length is usually between 20 and 25 percent of its total body length, this individual was likely between 10.5 and 13 feet (3.2 and 4 m) long.