A fossil stored in a Doncaster museum for 30 years is found to belong to an extinct marine reptile- a new type of ichthyosaur.
Ichthyosaurs were large marine reptiles believed to have coexisted with the dinosaurs. They are often described as "swimming dinosaurs" with bodies similar to dolphins. They swam the oceans before they became extinct 25 million years before the dinosaurs got wiped out on Earth.
Dean Lomax, palaeontologist and Honorary Scientist at The University of Manchester, was not aware that the fossil stored in the museum belongs to this new species. He first examined the fossil in 2008 when he noticed several abnormalities in the bone structure.
"After examining the specimen extensively, both Professor Massare and I identified several unusual features of the limb bones (humerus and femur) that were completely different to any other ichthyosaur known. That became very exciting. After examining perhaps over a thousand specimens we found four others with the same features as the Doncaster fossil," said Lomax in a university news release.
Lomax worked with Professor Judy Massare of Brockport College, New York, in determining the age, size, and gender of the new species. They also compared the new species to other reptiles, both alive and extinct. They found that the fossil is 189 million years old.
The findings will provide better understanding of the ichthyosaur species and how they coexisted with the Jurassic dinosaurs. Other scientists consider the new study as proof that museum specimens are useful for scientific research.
"Sometimes we discover things in the field, but the collections are an incredible source of opportunities, since visiting them, people can study specimens and collections from hundreds of places across the entire planet and travel in time," Dr. Blanca Huertas, from the Natural History Museum in London, told BBC News.
The study was published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
