Amateur archaeologist Jon Gopsill made the discovery of a lifetime while out walking his dogs on the beach when he happened across the 65-million-year-old remains of an ichthyosaurus, the Daily Mail reported.
Amateur archaeologist Jon Gopsill made the discovery of a lifetime while out walking his dogs on the beach when he happened across the 65-million-year-old remains of an ichthyosaurus, the Daily Mail reported.
"I often go to the beach walking with my dogs and when the tide goes out we go out to the rocks because they like playing there," he explained.
"We were at the beach when I saw this thing and thought, 'What's that?' so I went a bit closer and thought, 'Wow.'"
"I realized that it was amazing, museum-quality stuff, as soon as I saw it I knew I found something special," he said. "I thought it was obviously a fossilized creature, possibly an ichthyosaur."
And it turns out Gopsill was right about it being an ichthyosaur skeleton, according to Mike Day, a curator in the Earth Sciences department at the Natural History Museum.
"Looking at this specimen, based on the number of bones in the pectoral paddle, the apparent absence of a pelvic girdle, as well as the distinctive 'hunch' of the back, this is likely to be the remains of an ichthyosaur," he said.
Their fossil remains date from about 250 million to about 65 million years ago, with the largest specimens reaching a size of 43 feet in length.
However, that doesn't make it any less exciting for him.
"I was just blown away to see it there. It really is incredible that it has survived for such a long time and is now just there for everyone to see."
He says that the day after finding the ichthyosaurus, one of his dogs fetched him a stone that contained a fossil.
"I couldn't believe it, it's stunning," he said. "I've taught her what fossils are but I didn't expect her to bring me one. My wife says it's luck — I think having the stormy weather has washed a lot of mud out so the rocks were a little bit more exposed."
h/t: Daily Mail