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Ichthyotitan
Ichthyotitan was a giant ichthyosaur from the end of the Triassic, about 202 million years ago, known from lower jaw bones found in Somerset, England, and named in 2024.
Who it is related to: A branch of reptiles separate from the dinosaurs; exactly where it sits on the family tree is still debated.
Fun facts
- Eleven-year-old Ruby Reynolds and her father found the first piece of the jaw on the beach at Blue Anchor in May 2020.
- Researchers estimate its owner at about 25 metres long, close to a blue whale, but the figure rests on a few bones and needs more evidence.
- A similar-sized bone found at Lilstock in 2016 helped confirm the find.
Dinosaurs from the same rocks
Ichthyotitan was found in the Westbury, which also holds these dinosaurs: the same region and broad span of time.
Formation data from the Paleobiology Database, counting only each genus's main formations. One formation can span hundreds of thousands to millions of years, so this doesn't mean any two of them ever met.
Scientific details
- Group
- Ichthyosaurs
- Family
- Shastasauridae
- When it lived
- 201.4–205.7 million years ago
- Geologic stages
- Rhaetian
- Named by
- Lomax et al., 2024
- Fossil occurrences
- 1 sites
Countries with fossils
- United Kingdom
Sources for the description and facts
Data from Paleobiology Database and Wikidata