However, fossil hunters excavated the remains of the extinct dolphin-like reptile (ichthyosaur is Greek for “fish lizard”) approximately eight hours before the storm hit. Had the storm hit before the excavation was complete, the crumbling rock of the cliff could have collapsed and destroyed the fossil.
“There was a very difficult, short window before another storm blew in so we were limited for time before it got ploughed out,” professional fossil hunter Paul Crossley, who was involved in the excavation, told the BBC.
The ichthyosaur fossil measured 5 feet (1.5 meters) long and included most of the ancient animals’ bones, making it one of only a few nearly-complete fossils found in the region during the past decade, according to Crossley. The region along the Dorset coast of the U.K. where the ichthyosaur excavation occurred goes by the name of Jurassic Coast, and is a U.N. World Heritage Site.
The Jurassic Coast holds a hallowed place in the history of ichthyosaurs. In the early 1800s, siblings Mary and Joseph Anning discovered a 17-foot-long (5.2 meter) fossil of an unknown beast in the cliffs of Charmouth, Dorset, near where the storm-threatened fossil rescue occurred. Continued fossil finds by Mary Anning informed the first published scientific description of the ichthiosaurs in 1821.
Read more at Discovery News
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