Dorset fossil find is new species

An almost complete prehistoric fossilised skeleton discovered on Dorset's Jurassic Coast is a new, rare species say scientists.

The ichthyosaur - a marine reptile from the time of the dinosaurs - has been called the Sword Dragon of Dorset and represents an important gap in evolutionary history of the creatures.

The size of a dolphin it's the first new ichthyosaur from the area in over a century - having been uncovered near Golden Cap in 2001 by Dorset fossil collector Chris Moore.

The skeleton includes a skull with enormous eye socket and a long sword-like snout.

Research on the animal's been carried out by ichthyosaur expert Dr Dean Lomax, an Honorary Research Fellow at The University of Manchester and an 1851 Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, in the journal Papers in Palaeontology today, "I remember seeing the skeleton for the first time in 2016. Back then, I knew it was unusual, but I did not expect it to play such a pivotal role in helping to fill a gap in our understanding of a complex faunal turnover during the Pliensbachian. This time is pretty crucial for ichthyosaurs as several families went extinct and new families emerged, yet Xiphodracon is something you might call a “missing piece of the ichthyosaur puzzle”.

"It is more closely related to species in the later Early Jurassic (in the Toarcian), and its discovery helps pinpoint when the faunal turnover occurred, being much earlier than expected.”

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