In 2020, 11-year-old Ruby Reynolds and her dad, Justin, were walking around Blue Anchor Beach in England. That’s when they discovered a fragment of an ancient sea beast.They spotted a four-inch-long, oval-shaped fossil. Then Ruby found a second piece of fossilized bone about twice as big. Fossils are the remains of plants, animals and other tiny living things that have been replaced by rock material.Zoom inAn interpretive illustration shows what the Ichthyotitan severnensis might have looked like when it swam the seas. Illustration: Gabriel Ugueto/Washington PostRuby and Justin returned home to do some research. They concluded that the fossil was from an ichthyosaur. This was an ancient marine reptile. It was shaped like a modern-day dolphin.Next, Ruby and her dad emailed Dean Lomax. He’s a paleontologist at the University of Manchester in England. Paleontologists are scientists who use fossils to study the history of life on Earth.Lomax said he gets a couple of hundred messages a year from people sending photos of potential prehistoric fossils.“[Most] of the time, it turns out to be an odd-shaped rock. You have to politely and gently let them down,” Lomax said. But Justin and Ruby’s email was a rare exception.Ruby and Justin were right: The fossil did come from an ichthyosaur. In fact, it was a new species of ichthyosaur. A species is a group of similar living things that can mate and reproduce successfully to make offspring.This particular ichthyosaur lived about 202 million years ago. The father-daughter duo helped describe the prehistoric creature in a new study. In April, scientists published the study in a scientific journal.A Mysterious Gap In The Fossil RecordRuby and her dad only found pieces of the animal’s lower jawbone. But paleontologists estimate that the entire creature could have stretched 80 feet. That’s 24 meters. It could be the biggest marine reptile ever discovered.Ichthyosaurs were marine reptiles that swam the seas during the age of dinosaurs. They emerged about 250 million years ago. There were at least 150 different types of ichthyosaurs.Zoom inLilstock Beach and Blue Anchor Beach are roughly 8 miles (13km) apart. Fragments of the ichthyosaur were found at both locations. Map: Newsela staffIn 2018, Lomax and colleagues made a similar discovery in nearby Lilstock Beach. They found fragments of a jawbone of a different giant ichthyosaur there. It also lived about 202 million years ago.Scientists have not found many other ichthyosaur fossils from this time period. That’s why the discovery is important. It helps scientists fill in a gap in the fossil record. The fossil record is the collection of all fossils that document the history of life on Earth.Finding two fossils from a similar time period gave the scientists the confidence to say it is a newly identified species. They named it Ichthyotitan severnensis.A Very Large IchthyosaurTo figure out the size of the new specimen based on its jaw alone, scientists made comparisons with other giant ichthyosaurs. But that still leaves some uncertainty.Lars Schmitz is a paleontologist at Claremont McKenna College in California. He said that he doesn’t care whether this newly discovered creature is the largest ichthyosaur ever found. What matters is that it is very big.The fossil’s large size provides a clue about how these marine reptiles evolved. Evolution is a process by which species undergo changes over time. These changes usually result in a new type of creature that is better suited for its environment than the earlier type.Ichthyosaurs evolved their large body size relatively quickly, but a mass extinction event about 201 million years ago seems to have wiped out the giants. A mass extinction event is when species go extinct, or disappear permanently, much faster than they are replaced. So far, only smaller ichthyosaurs appear to have survived the mass extinction event.Lomax hopes this new fossil discovery will make fossil hunters in the region revisit their collections and keep their eyes open. They might turn up bones from other giant ichthyosaurs.Ruby, who is now 15, says she’d love to find the rest of the fossil.
Question
In 2020, 11-year-old Ruby Reynolds and her dad, Justin, were walking around Blue Anchor Beach in England. That’s when they discovered a fragment of an ancient sea beast.They spotted a four-inch-long, oval-shaped fossil. Then Ruby found a second piece of fossilized bone about twice as big. Fossils are the remains of plants, animals and other tiny living things that have been replaced by rock material.Zoom inAn interpretive illustration shows what the Ichthyotitan severnensis might have looked like when it swam the seas. Illustration: Gabriel Ugueto/Washington PostRuby and Justin returned home to do some research. They concluded that the fossil was from an ichthyosaur. This was an ancient marine reptile. It was shaped like a modern-day dolphin.Next, Ruby and her dad emailed Dean Lomax. He’s a paleontologist at the University of Manchester in England. Paleontologists are scientists who use fossils to study the history of life on Earth.Lomax said he gets a couple of hundred messages a year from people sending photos of potential prehistoric fossils.“[Most] of the time, it turns out to be an odd-shaped rock. You have to politely and gently let them down,” Lomax said. But Justin and Ruby’s email was a rare exception.Ruby and Justin were right: The fossil did come from an ichthyosaur. In fact, it was a new species of ichthyosaur. A species is a group of similar living things that can mate and reproduce successfully to make offspring.This particular ichthyosaur lived about 202 million years ago. The father-daughter duo helped describe the prehistoric creature in a new study. In April, scientists published the study in a scientific journal.A Mysterious Gap In The Fossil RecordRuby and her dad only found pieces of the animal’s lower jawbone. But paleontologists estimate that the entire creature could have stretched 80 feet. That’s 24 meters. It could be the biggest marine reptile ever discovered.Ichthyosaurs were marine reptiles that swam the seas during the age of dinosaurs. They emerged about 250 million years ago. There were at least 150 different types of ichthyosaurs.Zoom inLilstock Beach and Blue Anchor Beach are roughly 8 miles (13km) apart. Fragments of the ichthyosaur were found at both locations. Map: Newsela staffIn 2018, Lomax and colleagues made a similar discovery in nearby Lilstock Beach. They found fragments of a jawbone of a different giant ichthyosaur there. It also lived about 202 million years ago.Scientists have not found many other ichthyosaur fossils from this time period. That’s why the discovery is important. It helps scientists fill in a gap in the fossil record. The fossil record is the collection of all fossils that document the history of life on Earth.Finding two fossils from a similar time period gave the scientists the confidence to say it is a newly identified species. They named it Ichthyotitan severnensis.A Very Large IchthyosaurTo figure out the size of the new specimen based on its jaw alone, scientists made comparisons with other giant ichthyosaurs. But that still leaves some uncertainty.Lars Schmitz is a paleontologist at Claremont McKenna College in California. He said that he doesn’t care whether this newly discovered creature is the largest ichthyosaur ever found. What matters is that it is very big.The fossil’s large size provides a clue about how these marine reptiles evolved. Evolution is a process by which species undergo changes over time. These changes usually result in a new type of creature that is better suited for its environment than the earlier type.Ichthyosaurs evolved their large body size relatively quickly, but a mass extinction event about 201 million years ago seems to have wiped out the giants. A mass extinction event is when species go extinct, or disappear permanently, much faster than they are replaced. So far, only smaller ichthyosaurs appear to have survived the mass extinction event.Lomax hopes this new fossil discovery will make fossil hunters in the region revisit their collections and keep their eyes open. They might turn up bones from other giant ichthyosaurs.Ruby, who is now 15, says she’d love to find the rest of the fossil.
Solution
In 2020, Ruby Reynolds, an 11-year-old girl, and her father, Justin, discovered a fragment of an ancient sea creature while walking around Blue Anchor Beach in England. They found a four-inch-long, oval-shaped fossil and a second piece of fossilized bone about twice as big. After conducting some research at home, they concluded that the fossil was from an ichthyosaur, an ancient marine reptile that resembled a modern-day dolphin.
They then contacted Dean Lomax, a paleontologist at the University of Manchester in England. Lomax confirmed that the fossil was indeed from an ichthyosaur and, in fact, it was a new species of ichthyosaur. This particular ichthyosaur lived about 202 million years ago. The discovery of this fossil helped fill a gap in the fossil record, as not many ichthyosaur fossils from this time period have been found.
The fossil was only a part of the animal’s lower jawbone, but paleontologists estimate that the entire creature could have stretched 80 feet, potentially making it the biggest marine reptile ever discovered. The large size of the fossil provides insight into how these marine reptiles evolved. Ichthyosaurs evolved their large body size relatively quickly, but a mass extinction event about 201 million years ago seems to have wiped out the giants.
The discovery of this new fossil has encouraged fossil hunters in the region to revisit their collections and keep their eyes open for bones from other giant ichthyosaurs. Ruby, who is now 15, says she’d love to find the rest of the fossil.
Similar Questions
What type of fossils provide the best detail?
In 2023, scientists uncovered 100-million-year-old dinosaur and stingray fossils in a Maryland park. A group of paleontologists and volunteers discovered a theropod shinbone, the fossils of a Priconodon, an Ornithominmoid, a Deinonychus, and the remains of the oldest stingray in North America. The variety of the discoveries allowed researchers to classify the site as a “bonebed,” or a geologic layer that contains the remains of more than one species that existed during the same time period and in the same climate. This is the first bonebed (which are often considered the ultimate find in paleontology circles) discovered in Maryland since 1887. What does the text most strongly suggest about the site discovered by the researchers?The variety of fossils found at this site is unusual for the area and marks an important discovery. eliminateExcavations where this many species are found are more typical of the West Coast.eliminateMost East Coast excavations had only found isolated fossil discoveries, like individual claws and teeth of dinosaurs.eliminateThe bonebed was uncovered thanks to the help from members of the public.
Fossils provide clues about the history of life on Earth. Paleontologists discovered a fossilized creature with a segmented body and a hard exoskeleton. They also found faint traces of what might have been small limbs.
Read the introduction [paragraphs 1-8].Which sentence from the introduction supports the conclusion that people are often mistaken about fossils?AThat’s when they discovered a fragment of an ancient sea beast.BThey spotted a 4-inch-long, oval-shaped fossil.CThey concluded that the fossil was from an ichthyosaur.D“[Most] of the time, it turns out to be an odd-shaped rock.”
8In which type of rock are you most likely to find fossils?
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