Paleontologists have discovered a rare Jurassic ichthyosaur in the UK.

An almost complete skeleton of a new and rare species of ichthyosaur, a marine reptile that dominated the ancient oceans, has been discovered on the coast of the Jurassic Period in Great Britain. The new species was named Xiphodracon goldencapensis, or "Dorset xiphoid dragon." This dolphin-sized ichthyosaur is the only known member of its genus and helps fill an important gap in the evolutionary record of these marine reptiles. This was reported on October 10 in the journal Science X.

The discovery of Xiphodracon was the first described genus of Early Jurassic ichthyosaurs in this region for more than 100 years. The skeleton was found near Golden Cap in 2001 by fossil collector Chris Moore and is almost perfectly preserved. The skeleton includes a skull with a huge eye socket and a long, xiphoid snout. Scientists estimated the length of the animal at about 3 m, and its diet consisted of fish and squid. The fossils even show possible traces of the last meal.

The study was conducted by an international team of paleontologists led by ichthyosaur specialist from the University of Manchester, Dr. Dean Lomax, and published in the journal Papers in Palaeontology. According to Lomax, the skeleton helped fill a gap in understanding the complex exchange of species during the Jurassic period, when several families of ichthyosaurs became extinct and several new ones appeared. Xiphodracon turned out to be "the missing piece of the ichthyosaur puzzle."

The study's co-authors, including Judy Massar, a professor at the State University of NY, and Erin Maxwell, a doctor at the Stuttgart State Museum of Natural History, emphasized the uniqueness of the find. The skeleton shows injuries and diseases of the bones, and the skull, apparently, was bitten by a large predator, which gives an idea of the causes of death of the animal. They also revealed unique features not previously seen in other ichthyosaurs, including an unusual bone near the nostril with spiny protrusions.

The skeleton will be on display at the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada, where visitors will be able to see a rare specimen that has been almost completely preserved for almost 200 million years.

CNN reported on August 28 that scientists in Morocco have found the fossilized remains of a dinosaur covered in spikes and armor. The dinosaur is the oldest representative of a group of tank-like armored dinosaurs called Ankylosaurus, its length reached about 4 m and its weight was 1-2 tons.

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