By Paul de la Salle
Ophthalmosaurus – the ‘eye lizard’ – is so referred to as due to its monumental eyes, presumably of essential significance when diving to monumental depths within the Jurassic seas in search and pursuit of its favorite prey, the belemnite. This was a big ichthyosaur, supremely tailored to its marine surroundings. Some fossil collectors suppose it ought to be referred to as ‘Ribosaurus’ on account of the quantity and dimension of its ribs which might be normally damaged into a whole lot of items when discovered.
Particular person vertebrae and rib sections of this, the one ichthyosaur identified from the Decrease Oxford Clay, are fairly common finds. However, I was lucky enough to find a partial articulated skeleton this summer, in the drainage ditches of a Wiltshire gravel pit.
Recent heavy rains had washed away some of the clay from the bank exposing a large pyritic concretion packed with bones, including a humerus. When I dug into the bank, I was amazed to find both front paddles, including both humeri and about 50 paddle bones. Many of the bones were fused together in life position.
Over the next week or so, I recovered quite a bit more of the skeleton but the head had been washed away by one of the floods that had deposited the gravel during the Pleistocene period. I wonder what the mammoths would have thought had they known that they were walking on top of the remains of the ‘eye lizard’.
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