There is a secret at the bottom of a lagoon at a nature reserve in England.
The fossils were found recently, a reminder of when dinosaurs ruled the Earth and giant marine reptiles ruled the oceans.
The remains of a sea creature, an Ichthyosaur, were the largest ever discovered of that type in Britain, those involved in a now- complete excavation project announced on Monday. They said that it was the largest and most complete skeleton of an Ichthyosaur found anywhere in the world.
They said the skeleton is from the early Jurassic Period and is more than 30 feet tall. The lagoon was drained as part of a landscaping project.
The fossil was found at the Rutland Water Nature Reserve in England's East Midlands, which is known for attracting water fowl and other birds.
Joe Davis, a team leader at the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, said on Monday that he first encountered the fossil last February while he was in the mud with a colleague.
Mr. Davis said that they looked at it and scratched their heads. It might be from the dinosaur era. We could see the bumps and ridges. alarm bells started to ring.
Mr. Davis contacted the county council and took pictures of the fossil, which was sent to Dean R. Lomax, a paleontologist at the University of Leicester.
The head of the excavation project said on Monday that he immediately recognized them as a type of reptile. He had found this very quickly.
Ichthyosaurs, fish-shaped marine reptiles that resemble whales and dolphins, first appeared about 250 million years ago, according to Dr. He said that they disappeared about 90 million years ago.
He said they had big eyes and big teeth. A lot of people call them sea dragons.
Dr. Lomax could not tell from the photos if the specimen was an entire skeleton or just fragments. He wanted to see it for himself.
He led a small expedition to the nature reserve with four paleontologists.
The visiting scientist at the University of Manchester said they were all blown away by it.
The conditions at the nature reserve didn't allow for a full-scale excavation. The lagoon was frozen and needed to be refilled with water so as not to disturb the natural habitat, according to Dr.
He said he was itching to get there and dig. There were a lot of migratory birds there. We had to wait for them to leave.
A team of experts returned to the site in August to dig up the skeleton, taking daily tests for the coronaviruses and signing nondisclosure agreements saying that they would keep the discovery a secret.
Mr. Davis said that the skull weighed over a ton.
The skeleton was wrapped in plaster to protect it as it was hoisted from the ground. The doctor lay down on the ground to see the size of the skeleton.
Mr. Davis said that the skeleton was not damaged when the lagoon was first excavated.
He said that they must have been close to the lagoon when it was constructed.
It could take 18 to 24 months to preserve the skeleton and remove the rock from the bones, according to Dr. He said that the bones of icthyosaurs have been found along the southern coast of England.
After the skeleton was removed from the ground, it was taken by trucks to the laboratory of the project co- leader, who was about 2.5 hours away from Rutland. The main body section was too large to fit inside a truck, so it was loaded onto a trailer. It was wrapped up.
It would have given people a scare.
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