:strip_icc()/i.s3.glbimg.com/v1/AUTH_59edd422c0c84a879bd37670ae4f538a/internal_photos/bs/2022/7/2/QxdsAFQtiszPEaDcSr2A/image001-72-.jpg "The rare fish fossil in ‘fierce’ pose found in grassland | Science")
A fierce looking fish fossil has been unearthed from a remarkable new Jurassic excavation site just outside Stroud in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom.
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The creature — a predator called Pachycormussimilar to tuna — is beautifully preserved in three dimensions.
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With its big teeth and eyes, it looks like it’s about to launch an attack.
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With its big teeth and eyes, it looks like it’s about to launch an attack. — Photo: Steven Dey of Thinksee3D (via BBC)
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The specimen was identified by fossil hunters Neville and Sally Hollingworth.
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“It was a real surprise because when you find fossils, most of the time they end up flattened by the action of time,” Neville tells BBC News.
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“However, it was amazing to find this one, because we realized the skull wasn’t crushed.”
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“The fish’s mouth is open — and it looks like it’s going to come out of the rock towards you.”
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The couple found the fish head in a pasture behind a stable in the village of Kings Stanley.
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It was encased in one of the many limestone nodules that formed a layer of exposed clay.
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Land owner Adam Knight had no idea his cattle were grazing on top of a rich layer of fossils, dating back 183 million years. At the time, the site was under warm tropical waters.
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These English cattle sit on top of an early Jurassic layer of clay that contains abundant fossils — Photo: Sally Hollingworth (via BBC)
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Knight gave permission to Neville and Sally, along with a team led by the University of Manchester, in Englandto further investigate the location.
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A backhoe was brought in to extract hundreds of nodules, which were carefully opened to see what they contained.
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Owner allowed team to investigate terrain — Photo: Steve Dey via BBC
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At the end of the excavation, more fish, squid and even the bones of two ichthyosaurs, marine reptiles that resemble today’s dolphins, but larger, were discovered.
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“We have the entire food chain in this place,” declared paleontologist Dean Lomax of the University of Manchester.
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“It is Pachycormus would probably be eating smaller fish and squid.”
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“And the ichthyosaurs would be after the Pachycormus.”
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Interestingly, for a marine life scenario, pieces of fossilized wood and insects were also found in the clay layer, indicating that land was not that far from this body of water.
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Remarkable detail: the fish’s soft tissues are preserved — Photo: Dean Lomax via BBC
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The findings will likely keep researchers busy for years to come.
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And there is a great deal of interest because the specimens are from a peculiar period in the early Jurassic — the Toarcian.
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This is a period known for the exceptional preservation of specimens, including soft tissue, and the team even found a fish in which its stomach contents can be seen.
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“The last discovery comparable to this took place at the so-called Strawberry Bank Lagerstätte in Somerset in the 1800s”, estimates Sally.
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Neville and Sally Hollingworth are famous for finding exceptional fossils in the area — Photo: BBC
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The Hollingworths are famous for their extraordinary ability to identify fossil sites.
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They recently discovered the remains of mammoths in the Cotswold Water Park – the investigation became a BBC documentary.
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They also became known for discovering thousands of fossilized echinoderms — starfish, sea urchins and brittle stars — in a quarry north of the site.
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“These sites reveal that there are still many significant fossil discoveries to be made in the United Kingdom“, says Lomax.
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The intention is to hold a public exhibition of the fossils in the United Kingdom from October.
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See a 3D model of Pachycormus in this link.
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