Wednesday, October 28, 2009




T-rex was a wimp. The recent discovery of a fossilized skull in England crowns the new king of predatory dinosaurs: a 53-foot “sea monster” called a pliosaur.The 155-million-year-old monster’s fossilized skull was found on the shores of Weymouth Bay, England, along a 95-mile stretch of land that’s been dubbed Jurassic Coast.Local dino-bone hunter Kevan Sheehan found large fragments of the skull – which is 90% complete – over several years. “In 40 years of collecting, I have often been green with envy at some of the finds other people have made,” said Sheehan. “But now, when someone shows me a find, I can say: ‘That's not a fossil....this pliosaur, that's a fossil!’ ”Experts believe that the skull - which measures over 6-feet - contains the largest dinosaur jaw ever found in England, or the world, and that it means pliosaurs were powerful enough to rip a small car in half.The pliosaurs were marine reptiles with a head similar to a crocodile and large, paddle-like fins. These predators lived throughout the Jurassic period. Their fossils dwarf those of the 40-foot long T-rex of the Cretaceous era. Fossils of two pliosaurs - dubbed “Predator X” and “The Monster” - were discovered in Svalbard, Norway, but neither beast comes close to the size of the Weymouth Bay pliosaur.The fossil is set to go on display at the Dorset County Museum in Dorchester, with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Dorset and Devon county councils.

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