OPINION
Some kids have all the luck. Like most kids, I was a dinosaur fanatic. I still am. I was lucky enough, at least, to go on a bona fide fossil dig, in my early teens. I’ve fossicked a handful of minor fossils since.
But nothing like little Lily Wilder’s spectacular find, in 2021, of a 220-million-year-old dinosaur footprint. But when it comes to kids and spectacular fossil finds, it’s hard to beat Ruby Reynolds of Devonshire.
The fossilised remains of a second gigantic jawbone measuring more than two metres long has been found on a beach in Somerset, UK.
Experts have identified the bones as belonging to the jaws of a new species of enormous ichthyosaur, a type of prehistoric marine reptile. Estimates suggest the oceanic titan would have been more than 25 metres long.
Father and daughter, Justin and Ruby Reynolds from Braunton, Devon, found the first pieces of the second jawbone to be found in May 2020, while searching for fossils on the beach at Blue Anchor, Somerset. Ruby, then aged 11, found the first chunk of giant bone before searching together for additional pieces.
A 25-metre remorseless eating machine with jaws that could comfortably fit an entire human? Yeah… no thanks. Much as I love snorkeling, I’m always conscious that I’m essentially doing the aquatic version of skipping across a savannah where lions are almost certainly prowling, somewhere.
Now throw in a lion the size of a B-Double and, hell no, you won’t catch me using a time machine to get in a bit of Triassic skin-diving.
The research team, led by Dr Lomax, revealed that the jaw bones belong to a new species of giant ichthyosaur that would have been about the size of a blue whale. Comparing the two examples of the same bone with the same unique features from the same geologic time zone supports their identifications.
The team have called the new genus and species Ichthyotitan severnensis, meaning “giant fish lizard of the Severn.”
Which is at least appropriately terrifying.
Thank goodness, though, that natural selection called time on the “giant fish lizards”.
The bones are around 202 million years old, dating to the end of the Triassic Period in a time known as the Rhaetian. During this time, the gigantic ichthyosaurs swam the seas while the dinosaurs walked on land. It was the titans’ final chapter, however – as the story told in the rocks above these fossils record a cataclysm known as the Late Triassic global mass extinction event. After this time, giant ichthyosaurs from the family known as Shastasauridae go extinct. Today, these bones represent the very last of their kind.
Ichthyotitan is not the world’s first giant ichthyosaur, but de la Salles’ and Reynolds’ discoveries are unique among those known to science. These two bones appear roughly 13 million years after their latest geologic relatives, including Shonisaurus sikanniensis from British Columbia, Canada, and Himalayasaurus tibetensis from Tibet, China.
The find is also testament to citizen scientists, who aren’t necessarily blundering plunderers.
Realising they had discovered something significant, they contacted leading ichthyosaur expert, Dr Dean Lomax, a palaeontologist at The University of Manchester. Dr Lomax, who is also a 1851 Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, contacted Paul de la Salle, a seasoned fossil collector who had found the first giant jawbone in May 2016 from further along the coast at Lilstock.
Dr Dean Lomax said: “I was amazed by the find […]
“I was highly impressed that Ruby and Justin correctly identified the discovery as another enormous jawbone from an ichthyosaur. They recognised that it matched the one we described in 2018. I asked them whether they would like to join my team to study and describe this fossil, including naming it. They jumped at the chance. For Ruby, especially, she is now a published scientist who not only found but also helped to name a type of gigantic prehistoric reptile. There are probably not many 15-year-olds who can say that! A Mary Anning in the making, perhaps.”
Ruby said: “It was so cool to discover part of this gigantic ichthyosaur. I am very proud to have played a part in a scientific discovery like this.”
Science Daily
No, I’m not grinding my teeth in jealousy right now…