Debate over ancient sea ‘giants’ finally solved after researcher opens museum drawer
Over the past 20 years, paleontologists have been engaged in an intense debate about the size of an ancient sea creature.
In a 1999 BBC documentary, experts claimed that Liopleurodon could grow to be 82-feet long, sparking backlash from others who argued the creature likely maxed out at closer to 20 feet, according to a May 10 news release from the University of Portsmouth via EurekAlert.
Now, a discovery in a museum drawer might help researchers settle their debate once and for all.
David Martill, who was a consultant for the documentary, was recently at Abingdon County Hall Museum with another scientist who was photographing a skeleton, he said in the university’s release. As he waited, Martill began to look through museums drawers.
That’s when he made an exciting discovery: a massive vertebrae. Martill learned there were three more similar fossils in storage, and he got straight to work.
The vertebrae belonged to a Pliosauraus species — a creature similar to the Liopleurodon with a big, elongated head, a short neck, four flippers and a powerful tail — and dates back to the Late Jurassic period, about 152 million years ago, the university said.
Martill and his colleagues said they used topographic scans to calculate that the sea creature likely grew to be between 30- and 50-feet-long, about twice the size of a killer whale.
“We know these Pliosaurs were very fearsome animals swimming in the seas that covered Oxfordshire 145-152 million years ago,” Martill said. “They had a massive skull with huge protruding teeth like daggers — as big, if not bigger than a T. rex, and certainly more powerful.”
The discovery has granted scientists better insight to the size of such sea creatures, including the much-debated Liopleurodon, according to Martill.
“The size estimate on the BBC back in 1999 was overdone, but now we have some evidence that is much more reliable after a serendipitous discovery of four enormous vertebrate,” he said. “Although not yet on a par with the claims made for Liopleurodon in the iconic BBC TV series Walking With Dinosaurs, it wouldn’t surprise me if one day we find some clear evidence that this monstrous species was even bigger.”
Portsmouth is about 80 miles southwest of London.
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