Colossal pliosaur sea monster skull goes on display – BBC News

Colossal pliosaur sea monster skull goes on display – BBC News

You might have been watching that David atur show on BBC 1 where he showed us finally revealed in its full Glory that skull a colossal sea monster that terrorized the oceans millions of years ago and now we’re all going to be allowed to get up close and see it we

Certainly are and it is colossal the creature it’s called a pliosaur a ferocious Marine reptile with the biting force of a T-Rex uh it was found off dorset’s Jurassic Coast and our science editor Rebecca morel is at the ch’s collection museum for us this morning uh good morning to Rebecca she was there

Too she was there maybe she’s been eating so that is she that is she back is she back oh Rebecca there you are um tell us all about it we the the documentary last night was extraordinary not least the efforts to get the uh the

Fossil out of the cliff just tell us all about it it’s fascinating yeah I mean it’s an extraordinary beast and really are you ready to get up close and personal with it because this is one of the most fearsome predators that ever existed on the planet this is the 2 meter long

Skull of a sea creature called a pliosaur I mean just look at the Jaws on it it’s kind of like a crocodile on steroids you can imagine this thing snapping its jaws open and shut around anything that swam past it’s packed full of razor sharp teeth about 120 of them

Now it lived 150 million years ago about the same time that dinosaurs were roaming the land but this thing would have been terrorizing the oceans and as you said it’s been the subject of a documentary with sir David asra the Seas that surrounded the land where Tyrannosaurus Rex and all the rest

Of these great depocas and things were wondering about the Seas were full of monsters too how that must have uh appeared at the time is is a a wonderful thing to ponder upon these days uh with computer generated Imaging uh we can take information from scientists that tell us

About speed that tell us about how they move their flippers uh in all sorts of deductive ways um and putting all that together for you to be able to produce an image that is really convincing of a monster this size that once roam the Seas of this planet is really very

Exciting but the there’s a sort of double wh in this one because not only are you doing that but you are doing it on something that only just been discovered you’re really seeing something new and exciting and dramatic now I’m joined by Dr Judith casson who’s a paleontologist and plaur expert from

The University of Bristol I mean first of all just tell us a bit about this Beast what what was it what was it like I mean it gets described as a monster um I’m actually not inclined to call it a monster um I think somebody mentioned yesterday after they saw the program

That I was one of the people who didn’t call it a monster I mean for me it’s just one of the best preserved most fantastic fossil plaur that I’ve ever seen in my entire life it is representative of an animal which was clearly a fascinating animal um maybe no

More a monster than a crocodile and and just tell us a little bit about kind of this this specimen I mean you think that this might actually be a species that’s new to science yes so I’ve had look at um the surface features of the skull and there are a

Few things there that seem to suggest to me that it is new um that I’ve not seen before there’s certain proportions that are new um and different from from other plal sculls that I’ve studied um and I can point some of those out I mean in

The front of the snout even um we can see the clearly the number of teeth um in the upper and lower jaw and they are indicative of what sort of species it might be so it just seems to be new I mean how exciting is is that I mean one

Thing that catches my eye are the little pits the little dots on its on its snouts and these would have these would have helped it out hunting right yes so in fact many pliosaurs have this so these are this is not a species specific feature but it is in fact probably a

Long range center for the plur so the plaur would these are sensory pits they would be um pressure sensors so a plur swimming in dark dark Waters or murky Waters might not be able to use its eyes so easily but it would still sense prey through those through those sensory pits

And just very quickly I mean in a word I mean do you think this is how does it rank on the the list of pliosaurs that you’ve you’ve seen oh it’s the best one I’ve never seen anything quite so good in my whole life there we go thank you

Very much I mean not a monster I’m sorry for offending Judith by calling it’s a monster it’s a beast it’s a beast I mean it’s absolutely colossal and what’s fascinating about this I mean the head is 2 m long but the team who excavated it think the rest of its body is still

In the cliff so that’s another 10 m i mean this thing would have been the size of a double decer bus absolutely colossal I mean if they find it they’d probably have to build an extension to the museum to actually fit it in but you know imagine that seeing this this whole

Thing laid out from from the tip of its snout all the way down to to its bottom and it’ be absolutely incredible I mean it really is a a remarkable a remarkable animal thanks Rebecca

The skull of a colossal sea monster that was unearthed from the Jurassic Coast in the UK is going on display.

The 2m-long fossil belongs to a pliosaur – one of the most fearsome predators the planet has ever seen.

Sir David Attenborough investigated the discovery in a BBC film which aired on New Year’s Day.

The public can see the 150-million-year-old marine reptile at the Etches Collection in Kimmeridge in Dorset, close to where the beast was found.

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