Colossal 'sea monster' unearthed in the UK

[theHandpuppet]

Wow -- this is pretty darn incredible. Lots of great illustrations at the link, with photos of the fossils.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8322629.stm

The fossilised skull of a colossal "sea monster" has been unearthed along the UK's Jurassic Coast.

The ferocious predator, which is called a pliosaur, terrorised the oceans 150 million years ago.

The skull is 2.4m long, and experts say it could belong to one of the largest pliosaurs ever found: measuring up 16m in length.

<snipping>

It was bought with money from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and it will now be scientifically analysed, prepared and then put on public display at Dorset County Museum.

Palaeontologist Richard Forrest told the BBC: "I had heard rumours that something big was turning up. But seeing this thing in the flesh, so to speak, is just jaw dropping. It is simply enormous."

MUCH MORE at link

[greyl]

1. Big deal. ;)

It's half the length of a Blue Whale.

[Sancho]

2. Once you've seen Nessie, everything else is peanuts...

:boring:

[theHandpuppet]

3. The replies so far...

... only remind me why I don't post more often to the Science forum.

[Nihil]

4. Hey, I appreciated it!

Most of the time on this forum (and others for that matter)
I just read, occasionally recommend and rarely write.

That doesn't mean that I don't appreciate the threads, just that
I don't want to clutter them with comments that don't add to them.

Thanks for posting it.

:toast:

[Indenturedebtor]

5. Hey they kicked your post

I make little silly jokes in threads all the time when I don't have much to add... just to kick it up with something more than "K + R n/t". If people respond you get another kick :D

[Canuckistanian]

6. That's as big as Liopleurodon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liopleurodon

And that's as big as we've seen up to now. The largest carnivore that ever lived.