BBC studios
Sir David Attenborough stands next to the nearly 2 meter (6.6 foot) long pliosaur fossil at the Etches Collection in Kimmeridge, Dorset, England.
Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific advances and more.
CNN –
The remarkably well-preserved skull of a giant pliosaur, a prehistoric sea monster, has been discovered on a beach in the county of Dorset in southern England and could reveal secrets about these impressive creatures.
Pliosaurs ruled the oceans at a time when dinosaurs roamed the land. The unearthed fossil is about 150 million years old, almost 3 million years younger than any other pliosaur find. Researchers are analyzing the specimen to determine whether it could actually be a species new to science.
Originally discovered in spring 2022, the fossil, along with its complex excavation and ongoing scientific investigation, is now detailed in the upcoming BBC documentary “Attenborough and the Jurassic Sea Monster”, presented by legendary naturalist Sir David Attenborough and broadcast on February 14th becomes PBS.
Such was the carnivorous marine reptile's massive size that the skull, unearthed from a cliff along Dorset's 'Jurassic Coast', is almost 2 meters (6.6 feet) long. In its fossilized form, the specimen weighs over half a ton. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, pliosaur species could grow up to 15 meters long.
BBC studios
This illustration shows a pliosaur (left) with its jaws open about to attack an ichthyosaur in the ocean.
The fossil was buried deep in the cliff, about 11 meters (36 feet) above the ground and 15 meters (49 feet) down the cliff, local paleontologist Steve Etches, who helped with the discovery, told CNN in a video call.
The extraction proved to be a perilous and perilous task as the crew raced against time in fine weather before summer storms arrived and the cliff eroded, potentially taking the rare and important fossil with it.
Etches first learned of the fossil's existence when his friend Philip Jacobs called him after he came across the pliosaur's snout on the beach. From the start, they were “pretty excited because the jaws were closing together, which suggests (the fossil) is complete,” Etches said.
After using drones to map the cliff and determine the exact location of the rest of the pliosaur, Etches and his team began a three-week operation in which they carved into the cliff while suspended in mid-air.
“It's a miracle we got it out,” he said, “because we had one last day to get this thing out, which we did at 9:30 p.m.”
Etches took on the task of painstakingly restoring the skull. There was a time when he was “very disillusioned” when the mud and bones had burst, but “the days and weeks that followed were about…putting everything back together like a puzzle.” It took a long time but we got every bit of bone back in.”
It is a “freak of nature” that this fossil remains in such good condition, Etches added. “It died in the right environment, there was a lot of sedimentation… so when it died and sank to the seafloor, it was buried pretty quickly.”
BBC studios
Sir David Attenborough presents the BBC documentary Attenborough and the Jurassic Sea Monster, broadcast on PBS on February 14th.
The nearly intact fossil sheds light on the characteristics that made the pliosaur a truly fearsome predator, hunting prey such as the dolphin-like ichthyosaur. The apex predator with huge, razor-sharp teeth used a variety of senses, including still-visible sensory pits on its skull that may have allowed it to detect changes in water pressure, the documentary says.
According to Emily Rayfield, a professor of paleobiology at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom who appeared in the documentary, the pliosaur had a bite twice as strong as that of a saltwater crocodile, which today has the strongest jaws in the world. The prehistoric sea predator could have sliced into a car, she said.
Andre Rowe, postdoctoral researcher in palaeobiology at the University of Bristol, added: “The animal would have been so huge that I think it would have been able to effectively hunt anything that was unlucky enough to be in its space.”