Joe Davis

" I rang up The County council and I said I think I've found a dinosaur, " explained Joe Davis , who works at Rutland Nature Reserve near Leicester.

During landscaping work at the reserve's reservoir in February 2021, he'd spotted something unusual poking out of the mud.

It wasn't a dinosaur. But it was the fossilised remains of a ten-metre long sea predator called an ichthyosaur.

And it was the largest of its type ever discovered in the UK.

" I looked down at what seemed like stones or ridges in the mud and I said this looks a bit organic, a bit different, " Mr Davis told Bbc News . " Then we saw something that looked almost like a jawbone. "

The Council said to Mr Davis: " We don't have a dinosaur department at Rutland County Council so we're going to have to get someone to call you back. " A team of paleontologists were brought in for a closer look.

They concluded it was an ichthyosaurs - They were warm-blooded, air-breathing sea predators not unlike dolphins, and could Grow Up to 25 metres long. They lived between 250 million and 90 million years ago.

Dr Dean Lomax, a palaeontologist from Manchester University , was brought in to lead the excavation effort. He called The Discovery " truly unprecedented" and - due to its size and Completeness - " one of The Greatest finds in British palaeontological history".

" Usually we think of ichthyosaurs and other marine reptiles being discovered along the Jurassic Coast in Dorset or the Yorkshire Coast , where many of them are exposed by the erosion of the cliffs. Here at an inland location is very unusual. "

Rutland is More Than thirty miles from the coast, but 200 million years ago higher sea levels meant it was covered by a shallow ocean.

When water levels at the Rutland reservoir were lowered again in the Late Summer of 2021, a team of palaeontologists came in to excavate The Remains . Special attention was paid to the removal of the huge skull.

A large block of clay containing the ichthyosaur's head was carefully dug out before being covered in plaster and placed on wooden splints.

The Block , weighing almost a tonne, was raised out of the mud and will now be examined further.

" It's not often you are responsible for safely lifting a very important but very fragile fossil weighing that much, " said Nigel Larkin, palaeontological conservator and Visiting Research Fellow at Reading University. " It is a responsibility, but I Love A challenge. "

Anglia Water, which manages the Rutland reservoir, is now looking for funding to enable the ichthyosaur to stay in the area and be enjoyed by the General Public .

" A lot of people thought I was pulling their leg when I told them I'd found a large Marine Reptile at work, " Mr Davis said. " I think a lot of people won't believe it until the TV programme goes out. "

That TV programme is on Tuesday 11 January at 8pm on Bbc Two . will then be available on the Bbc Iplayer .

Source of news: bbc.com