Giant 'Sea Monster' Skull Found in England

October 27, 2009
Dinosaur experts in Dorset, England, are examining the fossilized skull of a sea monster so large they say it could have eaten a Tyrannosaurus rex for breakfast.

The fossil head is 8 feet long, suggesting that the beast measured up to 54 feet from the tip of its massive, crocodile-like snout to the end of its muscular tail, making it one of the largest specimens ever found.

The skull belongs to a pliosaur, one of a group of giant aquatic reptiles which roamed the warm seas over what is now southern Britain 150 million years ago.

It was spotted protruding from an unstable patch of cliff by Kevan Sheehan, a local fossil hunter, after being exposed by a rockfall. He spent four years going back day after day and painstakingly managed to uncover it.





Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Norway
An artist's interpretation of the gigantic pliosaur hunting ichthyosaurs, dolphin-shaped marine reptiles



Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Norway
An artist's interpretation of the gigantic pliosaur catching a pterosaur in mid-flight

Arctic 'Sea Monster' Terrorized Prehistoric Oceans
The fiercest reptile ever to terrorize the oceans has been identified from a fossil on a frozen Arctic island.

The huge pliosaur, dubbed "The Monster" by its discoverers, dated from 150 million years ago and boasted 60 dagger-like teeth the size of cucumbers, which it used to rip chunks out of prey.

The 50-foot animal was one of the biggest marine predators to have ever swum and would have been able to take on "anything that moved" in the water.



There is a lot of great information at the links, they had to have been working on this discovery for a long time, this sea montster is huge.



An artist's interpretation of the gigantic pliosaur hunting ichthyosaurs, dolphin-shaped marine reptiles

I saw that on the news. Interesting!

I must say though, the first pic is a little misleading. It's like the beast is saying to the prey' Smile for the camera while I sink my teeth in'

lol

Wasnt this also the same type of creature that almost bite that shark in two with only two bites?

Link

^^^that creature would swallow that 10ft. shark whole. That is a pretty crazy pic though

reply to post by stevcolx

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HA! I was going to say that it looks awful happy to be eaten alive!

This is a fascinating find! It's hard to imagine a creature with a head a couple feet longer than most humans are tall! Makes me glad that I live now and it lived then!

I work where there are recent sightings of some kind of sea monster just before I went on patrol I read the most recent article in the paper and told one of my fellow officers I was going to gocheck out the water (canal) at this pier (small pier) that nobody's ever on late at night.

I arrived about 10 PM an hour before I'm off duty and stood on this secluded pier not far from Madeira Beach (and Normandy Rd.)

I felt a little weird but what the hey! Anyway..I heard a large spash! to my right and about jumped out of my shoes!

I backed up and off the pier (just a few feet) and shown my light in the area. The water was unevenly messed up from something bigger than a mullet jumping.

I said ..screw this sh-t!!

and left ..looking back a few times



heres a link to the article I read that late afternoon that got me going,,
www.tampabay.com...