Giant ‘sea monster’ skull found in England

Fossil enthusiasts have discovered a 150-million-year-old skull belonging to a predatory marine reptile while hiking on England’s Jurassic Coast. The chance discovery led to an extensive artifact recovery mission of epic proportions, as experts descended the nearby cliff face in search of the remaining fossil.

The gruesome skull that resulted from the study, believed to be of a species new to science, has become the star of a new BBC documentary. Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster.

An unusual fossil

(Source: BBC Studios/Reproduction)

The Jurassic Coast in the United Kingdom is a famous place for making fossil finds, aided by a combination of erosion and storms that expose the remains of extinct animals along the shoreline. The area is also known for welcoming tourists to its beaches in search of ammonites, an extinct group of cephalopod molluscs. However, the discovery of the skull of a large predatory sea monster in the middle of a cliff really surprised everyone.

After discovering these moral remains rolled into the rocks, the task of archaeologists is to find out where and where the rest of the giant creature is hiding. “We got a drone in the air, looked through the cliff, and found that what was left looked like it was sticking out of the cliff, but we had to confirm that it was actually traveling down the cliff on ropes. Look down.” , paleontologist Steve Etches said in an interview IFLScience.

Etcher is the owner of the Etches Collection Museum at Kimmeridge on England’s famous Jurassic Coast, where the pliosaur skull will go on public display early next year. According to researchers, pilosaurs were among the largest marine predators to ever swim the Earth’s oceans.

An unusual creature

(Source: Getty Images)

According to estimates, the largest species of pliosaurs were about 12 meters long and used their large teeth to capture prey similar to ichthyosaurs. Another paleontologist, Christopher Moore, helped the Etches navigate the Dorset cliff face. The pair had to dig for more than two weeks to retrieve the skull from the cliff.

In the documentary Attenborough and the Giant Sea MonsterAnd, presenter David Attenborough explores how Etchess and Moore were able to recover the fossil from 12 meters above sea level. To help unravel the mysteries of the skull, Attenborough spoke to an international team of scientists to find out what the remains can tell us about how the pliosaur behaved in life, including its key hunting strategies.

The documentary used a number of sophisticated visual effects to bring the sea monster to life, fascinating scanning techniques that allowed scientists to peer inside the fossil, and relevant information on why researchers believe they are dealing with an entirely new species.