A father and daughter, searching for fossils on an English beach, found more than they expected: the jawbone of what may be the largest known marine reptile. Scientists estimate that the giant ichthyosaur, from which the jawbone came, measured 80 feet long and lived during the late Triassic period. A report in the journal PLOS details the find.
When Justin Reynolds and Ruby Reynolds (then 11) were combing the beach at Somerset in 2020 and came upon a giant bone chunk, they knew they were on to something.
“When Ruby and I found the first two pieces we were very excited as we realized that this was something important and unusual,” said Reynolds in a release. So they contacted Dean Lomax, a University of Manchester paleontologist.
Lomax confirmed their hunch that the bone was, indeed, from an ichthyosaur. "These jawbones provide tantalising evidence that perhaps one day a complete skull or skeleton of one of these giants might be found. You never know," said Lomax in a press release.
