Posted on 12/17/2019 8:09:23 AM PST by Red Badger
Dog walker Jon Gopsill, 54, was stunned when his pups led him to five-foot-long remains
The fossil was left exposed by recent storms on the coast of Stolford, Somerset
The amateur archaeologist believes the skeleton is that of a Jurassic reptile known as an ichthyosaur
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A dog walker claims to have stumbled across a 65 million-year-old skeleton on a Somerset beach – thanks to the sharp noses of his dogs.
Jon Gopsill, 54, was walking his two pets on the coast of Stolford, Somerset on Saturday when they sniffed out a bone that turned out to be part of a five-and-a-half foot long fossil, exposed by recent storms.
Mr Gopsill, an amateur archaeologist, believes the fossil is of the prehistoric order of porpoise-like sea creatures known as ichthyosaurs that lived during the Jurassic period.
Dr Mike Day, Curator in the Earth Sciences department at the Natural History Museum, confirmed that the skeleton was likely to belong to an ichthyosaur.
'Looking at this specimen, based on the number of bones in the pectoral paddle, the apparent absence of a pelvic girdle, as well as the distinctive "hunch" of the back, this is likely to be the remains of an ichthyosaur,' he said.
'It is not possible to identify the exact type of ichthyosaur from these images alone however.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
“..Probably smelled like fish..........”
But it tastes like Chicken!!!
Just a little bit.. “ichkty”... after sitting out all these years.
Not archeologist, but paleontologist.
An archeologist is a person who studies human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artifacts and other physical remains.
A paleontologist is a scientist who studies fossils. If your basement is filled with fossils found while out on hikes, then you’re an amateur paleontologist.
If your basement is filled with old bones, you may be a serial killer.....................
“The Sea was angry that day my friends...”
The gal who discovered collagen and and soft tissue remnants inside T-rex bones said she was inspired to look because of the "smell" fossil bones have.
"she noticed that the fossil exuded a distinctly organic odor. "It smelled just like one of the cadavers we had in the lab who had been treated with chemotherapy before he died," she says. Given the conventional wisdom that such fossils were made up entirely of minerals, Schweitzer was anxious when mentioning this to Horner."
https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/schweitzers-dangerous-discovery
Some other dog probably peed on it recently.
Whoa!
What happened to the increase of sea levels as per Greta?
That’s very interesting.
Maybe some of what’s left after bacteria are done is stable, and in some sort of vapor equilibrium in a confined space.
Yep, and not able to keep any of it due to draconian British laws.
CC
TXnMA
Very cool!
Thanks Larry Lucido.
Off-topic? That's the leash of our worries.
I’ll bark you on that.
Interesting. I was thinking the dogs might have seen the odd pattern.
My sister had a Golden Retriever. You could take a baseball sized rock from the stream bed and throw it into the creek. That dog would bring back the same rock you threw - I guess from your scent on the rock.
yes very good dog.
This whole article really gives me paws..
The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that spanned 56 million years from the end of the Triassic Period 201.3 million years ago to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period 145 Mya.
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