A newly discovered ichthyosaur might be the largest ever discovered, a study published Wednesday claims.
The 82-foot-long, 200-million-year-old sea monster was uncovered in bits and pieces at Blue Anchor, Somerset (Great Britain) between 2020 and 2022, the study published in the journal PLOS One describes. These marine reptiles evolved as terrestrial creatures before taking to the waves at some point in their evolution. They kept their requirement for breathing air and gave birth to live young, Live Science noted, making them one of the coolest dinosaurs ever.
Along with being super freaking cool, the Blue Anchor ichthyosaur might be the largest ever discovered by modern scientists and could represent a whole new species. The beast’s upper portion of its lower jaw was 6.5 feet long. That’s big enough to eat your boyfriend who claims to be over 6ft but is actually 5’11”.
Please welcome Ichthyotitan severnensis, a gigantic ichthyosaur from the latest Triassic of the UK!
The key – holotype – specimen was found in 2020 by fossil-hunting father-daughter duo Justin and Ruby Reynolds (Ruby was then 11!), who are co-authors.
https://t.co/kCQ89UyE8C pic.twitter.com/Op1TneJcqg— Dr Dean Lomax (@Dean_R_Lomax) April 17, 2024
This massive dinosaur was named Ichthyotitan severnensis, which means “giant lizard fish of the Severn,” after the River Severn estuary where it was located. You can always count on scientists to come up with the most creative names … (RELATED: Our Earliest Ancestors Walked Amongst The Dinosaurs, Study Claims)
More than 100 different species of ichthyosaur are known to science, which is pretty impressive since they went extinct millions of years ago. If this turns out to be a new species, scientists think it most likely came from the Cenomanian Age of the late Cretaceous period, when some of the last ever ichthyosaurs roamed our oceans.
