Sea dragon fossil discovered

Sea dragons discovered - 24th January 2022

Scientists found a sea dragon in the UK. The animal lived in the sea 180 million years ago. They found all the animal's bones together. This is a very important discovery.

The bones are from an ichthyosaur. The animal was 10 metres long. It was under an artificial lake in central England.

Joe Davis found the first bones. He works for a local wildlife organisation. He was digging in the empty lake. He saw some strange stones. He thought they were dinosaur bones.

Ichthyosaurs lived from 250 million to 90 million years ago. They looked similar to dolphins. But they had big eyes and teeth, like dragons.

Scientists identified the bones. They were surprised. Sea dragon bones are usually near the sea. But this area was under water 200 million years ago.

In the 1970s, builders were making the lake. They found small ichthyosaur bones. But they weren't complete skeletons.