UK man discovers 65 million-year-old fossil while walking his dogs

A British man Jon Gopsill accidentally discovered a 65 million-year-old skeleton on a beach in Somerset county while he was walking his dogs. According to reports, Gopsill's dogs found the five-and-a-half foot dinosaur fossil which came to their notice after being exposed by recent storms. It is said that the ancient fossil belongs to the Jurassic Period and is of a porpoise like marine mammal called the Ichthyosaur.

65 million years old fossil found in Somerset

Gopsill said that he often went on walks with both his dogs and in the event of a low tide they went out on rocks because his dogs liked playing there. The psychiatric nurse further added that he was an amateur fossil hunter and has already had a few finds to his credit. The 54-year-old man said that when he went closer to have a look at what his dogs had sniffed out, he thought it was a fossilized sea creature with the possibility of being an Ichthyosaur, adding that the fossil did not have a head but was at least 65 million years old. Gopsill further added that it was amazing to know that the fossil had survived the ravages of time.

According to reports, West Somerset's northern bays are known for fossils and in 2018 a part of the lower jaw of an 85-foot Ichthyosaur was discovered in the Somerset village of Lilstock, said to be 235 to 200 million years old. Ichthyosaur are big marine reptiles that are now extinct. The Ichthyosaurs belong to the order that is known as Ichthyosauria or Ichthyopterygia.

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Feathers belonged to Cretaceous period

In a recent archaeological discovery, fossil dinosaur feathers were found for the first time near the South Pole. The find hinted at how smaller carnivorous dinosaurs sustained themselves in extremely cold winter seasons in the Antarctic Circle about 118 million years ago. According to palaeontologists, the 10 well-preserved feathers found at a site called Koonwarra, Australia hint at the first official evidence that the long-extinct mammals lived at Earth's poles.

According to reports, the feathers date back a 118 million years to the early Cretaceous period, when the Australian continent was farther towards the south and merged with Antarctica to form earth's then southern polar landmass. However, the dinosaurs that donned these feathers went through many months of darkened skies and freezing temperatures during the winter season.

Feathers from the early Cretaceous period in modern-day Australia holds the key to understanding that many of the uses animals from that period found for these coverings, from mating to flight but in this case, the feathers may have had a crucial role in keeping dinosaurs warm to survive winter.

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(With inputs from agencies)