Weymouth Bay Pliosaur FAQ What is a Pliosaur? Pliosaurs are marine reptiles related to Plesiosaurs, animals with four paddles, a barrel shaped body and a long neck and tail. Pliosaurs have much shorter necks than plesiosaurs and are much more massively built. They are, in fact, the scariest animal that has ever lived in the worlds oceans in all time. Are they dinosaurs? No; dinosaurs are land animals with upright legs, rather like an elephants or rhinoceros. That is why a crocodile is not a dinosaur, their legs are squat like a lizards. However, Pliosaurs lived in the sea during the age of the dinosaurs and like them, are reptiles. Both the dinosaurs and the marine reptiles (ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and mozasaurs) died out at the end of the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago when a great extinction event wiped out two thirds of life on Earth. How old is it? Our fossil is from the Upper Jurassic period of geological time and is about 155 million years old. How big was it? The skull is 2.4 metres in length making the beast at least 15 and perhaps 18 metres long with a fin span, fin tip to fin tip, of 10m. Although it never lived at the same time, it could have torn the biggest Great White Shark alive today, clean in half Where is the rest of the body? Probably lost as there was no sign of the body at the find site. The massive skull probably fell off the rotting body as it bobbed about in the Jurassic sea decaying and being ripped apart by scavenging animals, possibly even other pliosaurs. This is very typical for the plesiosaur group; complete skeletons are very, very rare indeed. Is it the biggest in the World? The skull is one of the most complete and one of the largest examples of a Pliosaur ever found but it is not the biggest in the World. Pieces of larger specimens have been found in the brick pits of Oxfordshire. The skull of Kronosaurus , from Australia is possibly up to 3m long. Specimens of comparable size to the Weymouth Bay pliosaur are currently being discovered in northern Norway, on the island of Svalbard and in Colombia, South America but this is probably the most complete, large skull ever found. Who found it and where did it come from? The enormous fossil was found in pieces by a local collector, Kevan Sheehan, walking the shores near Weymouth. In 2003, he found three massive sections of the jaw were lying at the base of the cliff, freshly washed out by the sea. Over the next five years he then went back after every piece of rough weather and rain, patiently recovering the pieces as they became exposed. This is an incredible achievement for an individual collector and a sign of his dedication to the recovery of something that would otherwise have been lost to the sea. The three smaller pieces were found by other local collectors, Patrick Clarke and Shirley Swaine. One small piece at the back of one jaw is lost while the front of the jaw was probably uncovered many years ago. It could have been washed away or it could be lying in a neglected museum collection or even under someone’s bed! Why is the exact location a secret? The place where the skull came from is rough and unsuitable for large numbers of people to go collecting. With the likely media interest in this story, we, and the landowners, do not want the site to be inundated by inexperienced collectors. Where can I find one? The best place to find fossils is on the beaches around Charmouth and Lyme Regis (although these rocks are too old to contain a pliosaur). It is probably best to start on a guided walk from the Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre, Lyme Regis Museum or any of the local shops that run them. The best fossils (like this skull) are found on the beach when the sea has done all the hard work, washing the mud away. Never climb up the cliffs as they are prone to cliff falls and can contain treacherous mudflows. Finding a complete Pliosaur skull however, is probably a once in a lifetime event and even then, just for a lucky few! Where else have pliosaurs been found? Despite being such a massive animal; whole skeletons are very rare as they tended to be broken up before burial. Even if preserved complete, the body is so massive that it is either impossible to extract or, in a working quarry, there is a good chance that the bones will be broken and smashed by large machinery before being spotted. Despite that, other specimens have been found at: Westbury in Wiltshire (two skulls are on display in the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery) Peterborough brick pits: (a complete skeleton of Liopleurodon is on display at Stuttgart Museum, Germany) The Yorkshire coast (An example of Rhomaleosaurus is on display in the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin) Queensland, Northeast Australia: (Kronosaurus : Queensland Museum and the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard) Boyaca region, Northern Colombia Svalbard, Northern Norway Plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs can also be seen at: The Natural History Museum, London University Museum, Oxford New Walk Museum, Leicester Peterborough City Museum Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge Somerset County Museum Warwick Museum Whitby Museum Yorkshire Museum, York How much has it cost? The specimen was purchased for £20,000, half going to the collector and the other half to the landowner. Preparation (cleaning) and piecing the bones back together has taken 18 months of skilled, professional work with an associated bill of £32,000. Funding has been provided by the Heritage Lottery Collecting Cultures programme with match funding from Dorset and Devon county councils (for more information, see below. How much is it worth? Who knows; whatever anyone is prepared to pay for it BUT this specimen is not for sale; it has been donated to the Dorset County Museum for permanent display. Collecting Cultures; the HLF programme The Collecting Cultures programme has involved eight museums along the Dorset and East Devon Coast World Heritage Site and the finding has been used to improve displays and acquire representative fossils for each. The Heritage Lottery Fund contributed £200,000 with £30,000 additional match funding from Dorset and Devon county councils. The work has been coordinated by the Dorset Museum Service and Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site team. Other museums to benefit have been; Budleigh Salterton, Honiton, Sidmouth, Lyme Regis, Bridport, Portland and Wareham. Other amazing specimens include a rare Turtle for Portland, a partial plesiosaur for Bridport and Lyme Regis, a massive fossil fish for Lyme, a rare carnivorous reptile jaw for Sidmouth and a range of representative specimens from each part of the coast. More information ‘The Reign of the Reptiles’ by Mike Benton Kingfisher books ‘The Illustrated encyclopedia of dinosaurs’ by David Norman Salamander Books ‘Official Guide to the Jurassic Coast’ Coastal Publishing www.plesiosauria.com www.oceansofkansas.com www.jurassiccoast.com FAQ Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site Why is the coast a World Heritage Site? The Dorset and East Devon coast (the Jurassic Coast) was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in December 2001 because the rocks in the cliffs between Exmouth in East Devon and Studland Bay in Dorset contain a nearly unbroken record through 185 million years of geological time. Overall, along the coast the rocks dip or are tilted gently to the east. As a result, the oldest rocks are found in the west with progressively younger rocks dipping down towards the east. The red rocks of East Devon belong to the Triassic period of geological time. The dark clays, orange sandstones and creamy or white limestone cliffs of Dorset are Jurassic in age and above them lie Cretaceous aged clays, limestones, sandstone and Chalk. These rocks represent the Mesozoic era of the Earths ancient history and a walk along the coast is a Walk through Time. The coast is also famous for fossils; in fact virtually a third of the evolution of life is recorded along the coast. East Devon contains the fossilised remains of ancient reptiles while the Jurassic rocks of Dorset are world famous for marine reptiles such as ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and now, pliosaurs. The Cretaceous rocks contain rare fossil turtles, crocodiles and early mammals. The coast is maintained by erosion and indeed contains some of the finest examples of coastal processes; landslides, beaches, the formation of bays and headlands, arches and sea stacks. Erosion maintains the rock outcrops and deliver the fossils to the beaches. The UNESCO status was granted for the rock record, the fossils (the record of life) and the coastal processes under Criteria vii of the World Heritage convention. Why is the Pliosaur find important for the Jurassic Coast WHS? The coast is at least in part designated as a World Heritage Site because of the record of the evolution of life contained within the amazing fossils that come from it. The Pliosaur, as the top predator that has ever lived in the worlds oceans in all time, is an iconic fossil that illustrates the importance of this coastline in the understanding of the fossil record and evolution of life. Where is the Jurassic Coast? The World Heritage Site is a long thin strip of land between Exmouth and Studland Bay and broken up by the towns of Sidmouth, Seaton, Lyme Regis, West Bay, Portland Port, Weymouth and Swanage. The boundary in fact runs, in most parts of the coast, from the mean low tide mark to the top of the cliffs, so that it is the geology exposed in the cliffs and beaches that is protected.