A 150-million-year-old snout belonging to a predatory marine reptile was discovered by a fossil enthusiast walking along Britain’s Jurassic Coast. This serendipitous discovery led to a recovery mission of epic proportions, with fossil experts scaling down a nearby cliff face in search of the remaining pieces. It wasn’t easy, but it paid off, and the resulting giant skull – thought to belong to a new scientific species – is now the star of a new BBC documentary. attenborough and the giant sea monster. IFLScience went to meet the prehistoric monster and the people who discovered it.
The Jurassic Coast is famous for its production of fossil finds, and a combination of erosion and rough weather regularly scrapes up the remains of extinct animals along the coastline. Everyone goes to the beach looking for mundane bargains like ammonites, but will you find the skull of a giant predatory sea monster halfway up a cliff? Well, that’s not something you see every day.
later the nose was found As I rolled over the stones, I began to figure out where the rest of this giant sea monster was hiding.
“We set up a drone and scanned all the way along the cliff and found what we thought was a remnant sticking out of the cliff. But we needed to see it and we needed to actually get there by rope. We had to go down the cliff and say, “Go down and take a look,” said the fossil expert. Steve Etches MBE he told IFLScience while standing next to a giant skull in his workshop. He is the owner of the Etches Collection Museum in Kimmeridge, Dorset, on England’s famous Jurassic Coast, where the Pliosaurus skull will finally be unveiled to the public early next year.
Sir David Attenborough, Christopher Moore and Steve Etches look at fossils at the Etches Collection in Dorset.
Image credit: BBC Studios
Pliosaurs were one of the largest marine predators to ever swim Earth’s oceans. The largest species, about 12 meters (39 feet) long, was rarely off the menu, using its huge teeth to snatch and chew up prey like ichthyosaurs.
Etches was joined by a friend and fellow fossil expert. christopher moore The trip down the cliffs of Dorset was described by Etches as a lot of fun, but also by Moore as incredibly tiring. We believe in the latter position, given that the authors estimate that removing the skull from the cliff required the equivalent of two weeks’ worth of digging through the surrounding mudstone.
We were invited to visit the Etches Collection, where Etches and Moore, who have discovered impressive fossils and new species of marine reptiles on the Jurassic Coast, told us about their experience extracting the remaining parts of a Pliosaurus skull from a cliff and their We talked about the content. There is evidence to suggest that it is the first species to appear in science.
in attenborough and a giant sea monsterSir David attenborough Find out how Etches and Moore were able to recover fossils from 12 meters above the cliff face. To unravel the mystery of the skull, he spoke with an international team of scientists to learn more about how Pliosaurus behaved during its lifetime, including what strategies this predator used in hunting. Let’s explore what it can teach us.
![Pliosaurus tries to munch on an ichthyosaur Pliosaurus tries to munch on an ichthyosaur](https://assets.iflscience.com/assets/articleNo/71927/iImg/72592/attenborough giant sea monster.png)
What did Pliosaurus look like when it was alive while hunting ichthyosaurs?
Image credit: BBC Studios
Cutting-edge visual effects brought a sea monster to life, fascinating scanning technology allowed scientists to peer inside a fossil, and scientists believe it could be an entirely new species. You can see why.
Do not miss it attenborough and a giant sea monster It will be available on BBC One and iPlayer in the UK at 8pm GMT on New Year’s Day.