(CNN) — A fossil-collecting father and daughter discovered a massive jawbone on a beach in Somerset, on the British coast, belonging to a newly discovered species that may have been known to swim in Earth’s oceans. The largest marine reptile.
Scientists believe that the blue whale is 110 feet (33.5 meters) long, making it the largest known animal on Earth. But the 202-million-year-old reptile, known as an ichthyosaur or fish-lizard, may have been comparable in size.
The ichthyosaur jaw (or maxilla) was a long, curved bone located at the top of the lower jaw, behind the teeth, and was more than 6.5 feet (2 meters) long. Researchers believe the creature, named Ichthyotitan severnensis, Latin for giant fish lizard of the Severn River, was more than 82 feet (25 meters) long, about the length of two city buses.
Justin and Ruby Reynolds, who live in Braunton, England, discovered the first jaw in May 2020 while searching for fossils at Blue Anchor Beach in Somerset. Ruby, then 11 years old, discovered the first bone, and she and her father later discovered more bones.
Marcello Perillo, a graduate student in evolutionary paleontology at the University of Bonn in Germany, said the extraordinary discovery could reveal more about the role of prehistoric giants in the history of evolution and the marine ecosystems they called them. He is a co-author of a new report published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One describing the findings.
Unknown ichthyosaur discovered
Encouraged by the potential significance of the fossil discovery, the Reynolds contacted Dr. Dean Lomax, a palaeontologist at the University of Manchester and an 1851 Fellow at the University of Bristol, England. As an ichthyosaur expert, Lomax has named a number of new scientific species in recent years.
Intrigued by the fossil, Lomax contacted fossil collector Paul de la Salle, who discovered a very similar-looking jawbone of a giant ichthyosaur in May 2016. LaSalle discovered the first jawbone about 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) off the coast of Devon.
Lomax, the lead author of the new report, who along with co-author De La Salle studied the earlier discovery and co-wrote a paper about it in April 2018, suspected it may belong to a previous species. Unknown species of ichthyosaur. But researchers needed more evidence, and a second nearly identical jawbone provided an opportunity to identify the new species.
De La Salle said, “I’m very pleased to think that my discovery in 2016 has sparked so much interest in these giant creatures.” When I discovered the first jawbone, I knew it was something special. It’s incredible to have a second where our findings were confirmed. I was ecstatic.
Reynolds, Lomax, De La Salle and others returned to Blue Anchor to search for more debris. The team recovered other pieces that fit perfectly together, like completing a puzzle.
“When Ruby and I discovered the first two pieces, we were very excited because we realized they were something important and unusual,” Justin Reynolds said in a statement. I was excited when I discovered the back of the chin because it was one of the defining parts of Paul’s early discoveries.
Researchers have until October 2022 to reassemble the mandible.
“I was surprised by the discovery,” Lomax said in a statement. In 2018, my team (including Paul de la Salle) studied and characterized Paul’s giant jawbone, which we had hoped would one day see the light of day. This new specimen is more complete and better preserved, and shows that we now have two giant bones, known as surags, with unique shapes and structures. I was getting pretty excited, to say the least.
Piecing together a giant ichthyosaur
The bones date back to the end of the Triassic period, known as the Rhaetian period, when ichthyosaurs swam the oceans and dinosaurs ruled the land.
Lomax said the newly discovered jawbone is a better-quality specimen than the first, displaying characteristics of the hyperangular creature that set it apart from other species.
Severensis’s mandible dates back to about 13 million years ago, and follows previous fossils of giant ichthyosaurs belonging to different species found in Canada and China.
Ichthyosaurs, which are slightly similar to modern dolphins, first appeared about 250 million years ago. Over time, some of them evolved to larger sizes, and by 202 million years ago, marine leviathans such as Severensis may have been the largest marine reptiles.
But scientists believe that the giant ichthyosaurs disappeared during an ocean acidification event about 200 million years ago, and the surviving ichthyosaurs never grew to such a huge size again before disappearing 94 million years ago.
Lomax said the researchers emphasized that further evidence is needed to confirm the exact size of Severensis, and they remain hopeful that a complete skull or bones will be discovered in the future.
co-author Perillo of the University of Bonn studied the histology, or microanatomy, of the ichthyosaur bones and found that the reptile was probably still growing when it died, meaning adult Severnsaurus could have been larger than a blue whale.
Histology can reveal biological information hidden in fossilized bones, he said, revealing how individual animals developed and adapted to specific lifestyles. For example, some ichthyosaurs have bones that help them dive into deep water or live in shallow water.
Through histology, we can also learn how fast and for how long they grew; in the case of (the ichthyosaurs), we see no convincing signs that growth stopped, Perillo said. This supports the idea that if the animal had not died, it might have continued to grow in size, exceeding the estimated 25 meters. Much about these giants remains shrouded in mystery, but we’ll be able to unlock their secrets one fossil at a time.
Perillo said uncovering the history of marine reptiles is critical to understanding ancient marine ecosystems because these creatures filled various ecological niches and formed marine food webs, creating competition and a never-ending spiral of evolution.
From them, he says, we can learn how the laws of evolution shaped life and what caused it to become what it is. We can understand how changes in the environment affect ecological communities and predict future ecological development in the current environment.
The future of paleontology
Paleontologist Mary Anning and her brother Joseph discovered the first known ichthyosaur fossils in 1811 and 1812, long before the word “dinosaur” appeared in our lexicon Decades earlier. Since then, fossils of more than 100 species of ichthyosaurs have been discovered around the world.
Reynolds and De La Salle’s findings will soon be on display at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery in the UK.
It was so cool to discover part of this giant ichthyosaur. “I am extremely proud to be a part of scientific discoveries like this,” Ruby Reynolds said in a statement.
Lomax said he has enjoyed working with fossil collectors in recent years because he believes paleontology is a field of science where anyone can make a significant contribution.
For Ruby Reynolds, she not only discovered this important fossil but also helped name a giant prehistoric reptile, Lomax said in an email. I’m afraid not many 15-year-olds can say this! Perhaps, Mary Anning is brewing. But whether Ruby follows a path in paleontology or science, what matters is that she, along with Justin and Paul, have made enormous contributions to paleontology and our understanding of the ancient world.
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