[ad_1]
A stunning 6-foot-long skull of a 150-million-year-old sea creature has been excavated from a cliff on England’s southern Jurassic Coast in what scientists call It’s a one-of-a-kind quest.
The biggest skull is a pliosaur, a marine creature, was released on Sunday by the BBC after being removed from a cliff in Dorset using ropes and a speedboat.
“This is one of the best things I’ve ever worked on. What makes it unique is that it’s finished,” said paleontologist Steve Etches, who helped excavate the ancient find. the BBC News.
MARK GARLIC/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images
The skull, which is larger than human height, is somewhat deformed but, unlike other pliosaur fossils found, all the bones are present, he said.
David Martill, a professor emeritus of paleobiology at the University of Portsmouth in England, who was not involved in the discovery, agreed that it was a remarkable discovery – and one that could shed light on the organism’s anatomy.
“One, it’s really big,” he said The New York Times. “It’s also very well preserved.”
The giant skull was found accidentally while walking on the beach below the cliff by Etches’ friend and fellow enthusiast, Phil Jacobs, reported the BBC.
Finnbarr Webster via Getty Images
The beach is part of what is called Jurassic Coast, which is recognized as a UNESCO Heritage Site because of the unique fossils, rocks and soil found on the 95-mile coast.
Part of the skull’s nose had fallen out of the rock and onto the beach. Jacobs saw it and contacted Etches, but because what he found was so heavy, he buried it on the beach until help could return, Etches said. . The Guardian.
“It was great but, technically speaking, it’s not a good place to gather food,” Etches said. “The rocks are very, very fragile and unsafe, they erode quickly. It’s a very dangerous place – there are big and slippery rocks – so it was very safe.”
Using a drone, Etches said he was able to find a spot about 36 feet above the beach where the fossil fell. Then he and the others descended from the top of the rock and worked to remove the entire skull.
Etches tell the People he has no doubt that the rest of the body of the reptile is in the rock but it needs a lot of work and funding to get the rest.
“I like to take it out – the rocks are eroding a few feet every year and I think it’s important in science that we preserve everything,” he said.
For now, he said he is grateful to have found this amazing find that will be displayed in January at the Etches Collection Museum of Jurassic Marine Life in Kimmeridge, Dorset.
The practice will also be featured in a BBC documentary presented by David Attenborough titled Attenborough and the Giant Monster. It is scheduled to air on BBC One on January 1 and PBS in the US on February 14.