Sir David Attenborough's joy at terrifying 'one in a billion' dinosaur discovery in UK
28.12.2023 - 12:37
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
Sir David Attenborough recently discovered that the fossilised skull of a giant pliosaur had been found on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset.
The historian was overjoyed, yet posed the all-important question... if the pliosaur fought with a T-Rex, who would win?
And it seems like the answer would be the pliosaur, which looks like a cross between a giant crocodile and a dolphin and was the biggest predator of the seas 153 million years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth reports the Mirror.
The pliosaur was reportedly the length of a bus and had 90 razor-sharp teeth up to six inches long.
Sir David, 97, said: “It’s bigger than the Tyrannosaurus Rex by a long way, so I asked this schoolboy question.”
The icon's burning question was answered by Dr Andre Rowe, of the University of Bristol, who revealed the discovery of an intact skull of a pliosaur was a “one-in-a-billion” find and that he believed the pliosaur would also triumph.
Palaeobiologist Prof Emily Rayfield agreed, saying the marine reptile had a bite so devastating it had twice the power of a great white shark. She said: “I’m pretty sure it could bite through a car.”
The discovery was made by fossil enthusiast Phil Jacobs as he was walking on a beach near Kimmeridge in Dorset when he spotted the tip of the pliosaur’s snout in the sand.
He quickly made a call to his friend, local palaeontologist Steve Etches, who realised it had fallen from the cliffs, which would have been the clay seabed 150 million years ago.
Using a drone he confirmed that the rest of the skull was still in there. Steve said: “Phil thought it was a bit of wood at first. It was too heavy for him to carry in his rucksack, so we went down the very next day. We made a stretcher out of a ladder to