Jurassic Lives Uncovered

A little while ago I was complaining about a lack of local geological stories. Then two come along at once! You have probably read all about them yourselves but just in case, here is what I have found out.

First of all - Xiphodracon goldencapensis - is an 185 million year old icthyosaur found in 2001 in the cliffs between Charmouth and Seatown. I read about it first in a BBC ARTICLE and, later, tracked down the ACADEMIC PAPER which describes the beastie in great detail. The lead author of this paper, Dean Lomax, is based at Bristol and Manchester Universities.

The holotype and only known specimen of the hauffiopterygian leptonectid, Xiphodracon goldencapensis (ROM VP52596) from Golden Cap, between Charmouth and Seatown, Dorset, UK. The skeleton is exposed in ventrolateral view. The skull has been fully prepared free of matrix whereas most of the skeleton is still in matrix. The left (upper) forefin has been prepared so that it is three-dimensionally preserved and projects upwards. Scale bar represents 20 cm.

The animal has been identified as a new species and dated as being from the early Pliensbachian. This is a time from which few icthyosaur fossils have been collected and this makes the find of some importance.

And secondly - a dinosaur trackway found. The BBC has produced a YOUTUBE VIDEO about the discovery of a very long sauropod trackway in an Oxfordshire limestone quarry. One suspects that a documentary is on its way.

The trackway is over 220m long and is thought to have been made 166 million years ago. The dinosaurs were land animals but they were walking in shallow sea water - there are marine fossils next to the footprints.