{"id":900,"date":"2022-01-11T13:17:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-11T12:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/?p=108883"},"modified":"2022-01-11T13:35:11","modified_gmt":"2022-01-11T12:35:11","slug":"the-rutland-ichthyosaur-and-4-other-incredible-uk-fossils","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/rss_feed\/the-rutland-ichthyosaur-and-4-other-incredible-uk-fossils\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rutland ichthyosaur and 4 other incredible UK fossils"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Sara Rigby\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 11 January 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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The UK\u2019s largest ichthyosaur fossil has been found in a reservoir in Rutland. The marine reptile measures 10 metres long, and weighs over two tonnes.<\/p>\n

Ichthyosaurs, which are not dinosaurs<\/a>, are an extinct group of species that lived between 250 and 90 million years ago. Like whales and dolphins, their ancestors had emerged from the water onto land and later returned, meaning ichthyosaurs breathed air. They lived both along coastlines and in the open ocean, and are believed to have been warm-blooded.<\/p>\n

This specimen, a member of the species Temnodontosaurus trigonodon<\/em>, was discovered by Joe Davis, Conservation Team Leader at Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust. The team were draining a lagoon island at the reservoir, Rutland Water, for re-landscaping in February 2021 when they found it. They also discovered several other fossils alongside it, including ammonites.<\/p>\n

The fossil was excavated in August and September by a team led by ichthyosaur expert Dr Dean Lomax<\/a> and specialist palaeontological conservator Nigel Larkin<\/a>. They encased it in plaster of Paris with wooden splints, and lifted it out of the ground to be studied at a research facility.<\/p>\n

An episode of the BBC documentary Digging for Britain<\/em><\/a> featuring the Rutland ichthyosaur will be on BBC Two at 8pm on Tuesday 11 January, and later on iPlayer.<\/p>\n

4 other fantastic fossil finds from the UK<\/h2>\n

Swindon mammoth graveyard<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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\u00a9 BBC\/Windfall films<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

In 2017, amateur fossil hunters Sally and Neville Hollingworth discovered a hoard of mammoth bones and tusks in a site that was once the riverbed of the Thames. The find dates back hundreds of thousands of years, and even contains a stone hand axe belonging to an ancient human.<\/p>\n

The pair approached biologist Prof Ben Garrod, who put together a team and approached Sir David Attenborough to investigate. The BBC documentary Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard<\/a><\/em>, available on iPlayer, follows the team as the excavate the quarry and ask what could have killed the mammoths.<\/p>\n