By: Elaine Xu

In May 2020, 11-year-old Ruby Reynolds, now 15, and her dad, Justin Reynolds, discovered a jaw bone from an ichthyosaur, which is the largest known ocean reptile. They were on a family outing at Blue Anchor Beach in Somerset, England, when they came across this fossil set in a rock.

For father and daughter, the discovery was exhilarating. Mr. Reynolds described, “When Ruby and I found the first two pieces, we were very excited as we realized that this was something important and unusual,” Mr. Reynolds said. His daughter kept searching the beach, and, he added, “it wasn’t long before she found another much larger piece of bone.” This one was about eight inches long. This enthusiastic comment shows that Mr. Reynolds and his daughter are both excited about this great discovery.

Mr. Reynolds contacted Dean Lomax and Paul de la Salle, who are researchers, to look at the bones. They went on subsequent trips together to the same beach as before to search for even more bones.

In the end, they found half of a bone, which would have been about 7 feet long if complete. According to their estimates, the Ichthyosaur they found was about 82 feet long. These creatures lived about 202 million years ago.

Dr. Lomax said that this discovery also told people the importance of fossil collectors. “If you have a keen eye, if you have a passion for something like that, you can make discoveries like this,” he said, telling people that fossil collectors have a sharp eye and a passion for the job.

Ruby Reynolds said, “I didn’t realize when I first found the piece of Ichthyosaur bone how important it was and what it would lead to. I think the role that young people can play in science is to enjoy the journey of exploring as you never know where a discovery may take you.”

Link to Articles:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/17/science/ichthyosaur-fossil-largest.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/ichthyosaurus-fossil-largest-sea-reptile-b2530610.html