A 150 million - class - sometime schnoz belonging to a predatory marine reptile was found by a dodo partisan while walking along the Jurassic Coast , UK . The chance find led to a retrieval mission of epic proportions as fossil expert scaled down a nearby cliff human face in hunting of the residuum of it . It was n’t light , but it pay off , and the ensue atrocious skull – believed to belong to a new - to - science coinage – is the star of a fresh documentary from the BBC calledAttenborough and the Giant Sea Monster . IFLScience give way to meet the prehistoric monster and the people who discovered it .
The Jurassic Coast is a famously productive site for fogey discoveries , avail along by a combination of corrosion and tempestuous weather condition that think the remains of extinct brute are regularly being boil up along the shoreline . Anyone can chew the fat the beaches in search of common finds like ammonites , but finding the skull of an tremendous predatory ocean devil midway up a drop-off ? Well , that ’s not something you see every day .
After thesnout was foundrolling around on the stones , the delegation began to work out if , and where , the rest of the giant sea lusus naturae was hiding .
Sir David Attenborough, Christopher Moore, and Steve Etches observing the fossil at the Etches Collection in Dorset.Image credit: BBC Studios
“ We put a drone pipe up , then scanned all the way along the drop and receive what see to be the relaxation of it sticking out of the cliff , but we needed to sustain that and that intend a trip down the drop on ropes to actually go down and see it , ” fossil expertSteve Etches MBEtold IFLScience as we stomach next to the monolithic skull in his workshop . He is the owner of the Etches Collection Museum in Kimmeridge , Dorset on England ’s famous Jurassic Coast , where the pliosaur skull will finally go on show to the public early on next twelvemonth .
Pliosaurs wereone of the largest nautical predatorsever to swim in Earth ’s sea . With the biggest species at around 12 meters ( 39 foot ) long , there was n’t much that was off the menu , and they would use their enormous tooth to abduct prey likeichthyosaursand champ them into pieces .
Etches was bring together by ally and fellow fossil expertChristopher Mooreon the head trip down the Dorset drop-off face , report of which pasture from it being a lot of playfulness , according to Etches , and incredibly draining , according to Moore . yield the pair estimated getting the skull out of the cliff require the equivalent of two hebdomad ' Charles Frederick Worth of chipping into the surrounding mudstones , we think we ’d sit down in the latter pack .
What the pliosaur may have looked like in life while hunting ichthyosaurs.Image credit: BBC Studios
We were invited to claver the Etches Collection and talk to Etches and Moore – both of whom have detect impressive fossils and new metal money of nautical reptiles along the Jurasic Coast – about their experience getting the relief of the pliosaur skull out of the drop-off , and what grounds there is to hint that it ’s a newfangled - to - science species .
InAttenboroughand the Giant Sea Monster , Sir DavidAttenboroughinvestigates how Etches and Moore were able-bodied to retrieve the fossil from 12 metre up in the drop face . To help oneself unravel the skull ’s whodunit , he speaks with an international squad of scientists to find out what the skull can tell us about how the pliosaur behaved in living , include what strategies this vulture used in the hunt .
you could ask press cutting - sharpness visual effect to fetch the sea teras to life story , fascinating scanning applied science that enabled scientists to peer inside the fossil , and why scientists now believe this could be a completely young species .
Do n’t missAttenboroughand the Giant Sea Monsterat 8 pm GMT on New Year ’s Day on BBC One in the UK and iPlayer .
