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Giant Ichthyosaur Found: Bone From One of Largest Animals Ever?

Giant Ichthyosaur Found: Bone From One of Largest Animals Ever?

Computer generated 3-D illustration with the ichthyosaur Stenopterygius (Mr1805/Dreamstime.com)

By    |   Monday, 09 April 2018 05:04 PM EDT

A jawbone of a giant ichthyosaur found in England may belong to one of the largest animals that ever lived. 

About 3 feet of bone were found on a beach in Lilstock, Somerset, in May 2016, but initially it was thought to be just a rock, Newsweek reported. The collector who discovered it notified experts and they found it was from an ichthyosaur estimated to be about 67 to 82 feet long.

The experts compared it to another specimen and used a scaling technique to estimate the size, Newsweek reported. The paper, published in PLOS One, also suggested that bone fragments found in 1850 in Aust, Gloucestershire, could belong to an even bigger ichthyosaur, but admit that the bones are too small to do an accurate size estimate. 

Ichthyosaurs were large underwater reptiles thought to be nearly as large as blue whales, which are some of the biggest known sea creatures known today.  

The ancient creatures were from the late Triassic period (200 million years ago) and Cretaceous period. The fossil record suggests they may have become extinct before the mass extinction of non-avian dinosaurs that occurred 25 million years ago, National Geographic reported.

The giant ichthyosaur bone is dated to 205 million years ago, Newsweek reported. 

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TheWire
A jawbone of a giant ichthyosaur found in England may belong to one of the largest animals that ever lived.
giant, ichthyosaur, found, largest, animal, ever
209
2018-04-09
Monday, 09 April 2018 05:04 PM
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