7ft ichthyosaur fossil found on beach near Penarth

The accumulation of small heritable changes within populations over time.

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7ft ichthyosaur fossil found on beach near Penarth

#1  Postby DougC » Dec 20, 2014 12:38 am

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-30522904
B.B.C. Article
An amateur fossil hunter has unearthed a 7ft skeleton of a carnivorous marine reptile on a beach in south Wales.
Jonathan Bow, 34, discovered the ichthyosaur while walking the shoreline in the Penarth area.
A palaeontologist at the National Museum Wales said the discovery is important as it appears to be complete.
"Something this large and complete is a once in a lifetime find," said Mr Bow, a computer programmer in Swansea.

Image

Other fossils from the Jurassic period have been unearthed in the area, dating back 200 million years.
He said anyone walking the dog on the beach could have found it, adding that an inch-long piece of rock took his eye after being exposed on a changing tide in September.
It took Mr Bow and his brother a day to expose the fossil in about 60kg (132lb) of stone.

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Re: 7ft ichthyosaur fossil found on beach near Penarth

#2  Postby Emmeline » Dec 20, 2014 8:30 am

Wow! So exciting to find such a specimen. He says anyone could have found it but he obviously has a brilliant "fossil eye" to have noticed the inch long piece to start with.
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Re: 7ft ichthyosaur fossil found on beach near Penarth

#3  Postby smudge » Dec 20, 2014 8:45 am

Wow indeed! What a find.
When I was a kid my dad and I found five or six ichthyosaur vertebrate fossils (in close proximity to each other) over the course of several weekends walking in Norfolk. We went back searching every weekend for months dreaming we may find the rest of the beastie, unfortunately without success.
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