The picture is illustrative
17:03, 13 December 2023
The “CNN” portal reports that a very well-preserved skull of a gigantic pliosaur – a prehistoric sea monster – has been found on a beach in the south of England, in the county of Dorset. It could reveal secrets about these interesting creatures.
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Pliosaurs lived in the oceans at a time when dinosaurs walked the land. The found fossil is about 150 million years old. Researchers are analyzing the found specimen to determine if it could be a new species unknown to science.
The fossil, originally discovered in the spring of 2022, is detailed in the upcoming BBC documentary Attenborough and the Jurassic Sea Monster, which will be screened by legendary naturalist Sir David Attenborough on February 14. The film will be shown on the “PBS” channel.
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The skull of the sea monster found is almost 2 meters long and weighs more than half a ton.
The found fossil was hidden deep in the rock and its extraction was a particularly dangerous task, as the team dealing with it had to race against time to make it before the onset of summer storms. It was necessary to catch up before the valuable find was washed away in the sea.
Drones were used to map the rock and pinpoint the location of the pliosaur. It took three weeks to free the sea monster from the rock.
Paleontologist Steve Etch expresses his excitement when he says, “It was a miracle we got it! We had one day left and we did it at 21.30 on the last day.”
Etch undertook the task of painstakingly restoring the skull. “The fact that this fossil has been preserved in such good condition is a ‘freak of nature,'” added Etch. Apparently, the beast died in the right environment for its fossil to survive well enough to this day.
The nearly intact fossil sheds light on the characteristics that made the pliosaur a truly fearsome predator. It hunted prey such as dolphin-like ichthyosaurs.
A predator with huge sharp teeth used different senses. This is evidenced by sensory pits still visible in the skull, which may have enabled it to detect changes in water pressure.
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Emily Rayfield, professor of paleobiology at the University of Bristol, explains that pliosaurs had twice the bite force of a saltwater crocodile, which has the strongest jaws in the world today. She said the prehistoric marine predator could have eaten the car.
Andre Rowe, a palaeobiology researcher at the University of Bristol, added that the beast was so huge that it would have been able to hunt down anything in its path.
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2023-12-13 15:15:35
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