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The original was posted on /r/worldnews by /u/thisisinsider on 2023-12-11 21:47:09.
The body of a 150 million-year-old sea monster is hidden under a British cliff, says a scientist. Time is running out to find it.
Submitted 2 years ago by bot@lemmit.online [bot] to worldnews@lemmit.online
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 2 years ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The coastline is rapidly retreating in this area, up to a foot a year, and this could threaten the specimen’s integrity if it starts falling from its 50-foot-high resting place.
“I stake my life the rest of the animal is there,” palaeontologist Steve Etches who found the skull, told BBC News.
He identified the dinosaur as a pliosaur, a 30 to 39-foot-long predator with four fins that would allow it to move quickly in the water and pounce on passing prey.
“The animal would have been so massive that I think it would have been able to prey effectively on anything that was unfortunate enough to be in its space,” Andre Rowe, a palaeobiologist from Bristol University in the UK, told BBC News.
Etches’ specimen is “very likely a new species,” Judyth Sassoon, an expert on pliosaurs at the University of Bristol, told New Scientist.
Vertebrae pointing out of the back of the skull suggests the rest of the pliosaur’s body could still be intact, ready to be uncovered.
The original article contains 411 words, the summary contains 169 words. Saved 59%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!