By: Julian Naumann
In 1811, 12-year-old Mary Anning came across a colossal 82-foot Ichthyosaur fossil—the first complete specimen of the largest scientifically known ocean-dwelling reptile known during the dinosaurs, buried in yellow sand near her home in southwestern England. Two centuries later, eleven-year-old Ruby Reynolds found another gigantic ichthyosaur fossil just under 50 miles away from the first discovery by Mary Anning.
Four years later, fifteen-year-old Mrs. Reynolds and her father, Justin Reynolds, have been in pursuit of new undiscovered fossils for the past twelve years near their home in Braunton, England. During a family outing in May 2020, the two anchored near the village of Blue Anchor and came across another shrouded fossil.
“We were both excited as we had never found a piece of fossilized bone as big as this before,” Mr. Reynolds said while her daughter continued the search for larger pieces of bone, “and it wasn’t long before she found another much larger piece of bone.”
They carried home the fossil fragments—the largest fossil fragment measuring 8 inches long— and kicked off research. According to a 2018 article by fossil collectors and researchers near Lilstock, the fossil fragments the two found were similar to hypothesized jawbone pieces of an ichthyosaur found by fossil hunters. Unfortunately, researchers and scientists who worked on the fossils in Lilstock deemed the fossil too incomplete to guarantee it was part of an undiscovered species.
After reading the article, Mr. Reynolds contacted the researchers who wrote the paper: Dean Lomax, at the University of Bristol, and an amateur fossil collector, Paul de la Salle. With the research and the collaboration with paleontologist Marcello Perillo at the University of Bonn in Germany, they were able to identify the fossil fragments through a microscope. Under the microscope, Mr. Perillo identified the fossil as a part of an ichthyosaur jaw due to its crisscrossed collagen fibers‚a trait that ichthyosaur bones have.
Ultimately, the fossils of Blue Anchor and Lilstock hinted significant information about undiscovered secrets of the ichthyosaurs. Their research also concluded that the Ichthyotitan could have lived up to 82 feet long, bigger than a blue whale, making it the largest sea reptile known to humans. Unfortunately, the ichthyosaurs went extinct at the end of the Triassic period.
“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, ” said Ruby Reynolds.