Giant "sea dragon" fossil discovered in the UK

The enormous 180 million-year-old fossilized bones of an ichthyosaur have been discovered in the United Kingdom, in what researchers characterize as one of the region's most significant findings. Joe Davis, the leader of the Rutland Conservation Team in the United Kingdom, was draining a lagoon island for re-landscaping on the grounds he supervises when he discovered the fossil.

Davis said:

"We followed what unquestionably looked like a spine. We could not believe it. " The specimen is the largest and most complete ichthyosaur fossil ever found in the UK, measuring nearly 33 feet in length and with a skull weighing one ton.

According to the official statement, the newly discovered Ichthyosaur, known as "Rutland Sea Dragon," is "the biggest and most complete skeleton of its kind found to date in the UK" and "the first ichthyosaur of its species found in the country."

Dean Lomax, a global expert on ichthyosaurs and head of a team of paleontologists, said:

"It was an honor to lead the excavation. Britain is the birthplace of ichthyosaurs -- their fossils have been unearthed here for over 200 years with the first scientific dating back to Mary Anning and her discoveries along the Jurassic Coast."

"It is a truly unprecedented discovery," Lomax added, "and one of the greatest finds in British paleontological history."