Dog walker finds 65million-year-old ‘ichthyosaur’ skeleton on beach thanks to sharp-nosed pups
A LUCKY dog walker says he accidentally stumbled across the remains of a 65million-year-old ichthyosaur.
The Brit's hounds sniffed out the prehistoric skeleton on a Somerset beach – and experts say it could date back to the Jurassic era.
Jon Gopsill, 54, was walking his two dogs on the coasts near Stolford, Somerset on Saturday.
During the stroll, his pair of sharp-nosed pups found a bone belonging to part of a giant fossil.
The five-and-a-half foot remains are believed to have been exposed by recent storms, and may belong to a prehistoric sea creature.
"Looking at this specimen, based on the number of bones in the pectoral paddle, the apparent absence of a pelvic girdle, as well as the distinctive 'hunch' of the back, this is likely to be the remains of an ichthyosaur," said Dr Mike Day, a curator at London's Natural History Museum.
"It is not possible to identify the exact type of ichthyosaur from these images alone however."
Ichthyosaurs are large extinct marine reptiles that first appeared around 250million years ago.
Their existence was first noted by scientists in the early 1800s, when the first complete skeletons were found in England.
They could vary from between one metre to 16 metres in length, and resembled modern fish and dolphins.
Ichthyosaurs breathed air, had warm blood and gave birth to live young.
Speaking about his discovery, Mr Gopsill said: "I often go to the beach walking with my dogs, and when the tide goes out we go to the rocks because they like playing there.
"We were at the beach when I saw this thing and thought 'what's that?' so I went a bit closer and thought 'wow'.
"I realised that it was amazing, museum quality stuff. As soon as I saw it, I knew I found something special.
"I thought it was obviously a fossilised sea creature, possibly an ichythosaur.
"I was just blown away to see it there. It really is incredible that is has survived for such a long time and is now just there for everyone to see."
Why did the dinosaurs die out?
Here's what you need to know...
- The dinosaur wipe-out was a sudden mass extinction event on Earth
- It wiped out roughly three-quarters of our planet's plant and animal species around 66million years ago
- This event marked the end of the Cretaceous period, and opened the Cenozoic Era, which we're still in today
- Scientists generally believe that a massive comet or asteroid around 9 miles wide crashed into Earth, devastating the planet
- This impact is said to have sparked a lingering "impact winter", severely harming plant life and the food chain that relied on it
- More recent research suggests that this impact "ignited" major volcanic activity, which also led to the wiping-out of life
- Some research has suggested that dinosaur numbers were already declining due to climate changes at the time
- But a study published in March 2019 claims that dinosaurs were likely "thriving" before the extinction event
But the magic didn't stop there: Mr Gopsill and his furry friends made another discovery the very next day.
During a walk, one of his dogs brought him a stone that also turned out to be a fossil.
"I couldn't believe it, it's stunning. I've taught her what fossils are, but I didn't expect her to bring me one," Mr Gopsill, a psychiatric nurse, explained.
"My wife says it was just luck – I think having the stormy weather has washed a lot of the mud out, so the rocks were a little bit more exposed."
The northern of West Somerset is a hot-bed for Jurassic and Triassic fossils, due to the very old rocks that make up the coastline.
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Archaeologists think the ‘original Bigfoot’ was giant ape twice the size of a human that roamed Earth two million years ago.
And, the face of a 1,000-year-old Viking warrior woman with a gruesome battle wound across her skull has been revealed.
Do you ever keep an eye out for fossils at the beach? Let us know in the comments!
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