A gigantic skull of a pre-historic aquatic monster was discovered in England, and it could shed light on the secrets of such creatures that lived in the waters during ancient times.
The discovery was made on a beach in the county of Dorset in southern England, and researchers claim that these sea monsters dominated the oceans at a time when dinosaurs roamed the land.
According to a CNN report, the skull of this gigantic creature named Pilosaur is at least 150 million years old, and initial analysis suggests that the skull is almost 3 million years younger than any pilosaur found.
Researchers are also looking for the possibility to determine whether this skull may sometimes be of an entirely different species.
The mammoth skull was originally spotted in spring 2022. More details about this fossil, along with the excavation that led to the finding will be detailed in the upcoming BBC documentary "Attenborough and the Jurassic Sea Monster," presented by naturalist Sir David Attenborough.
The fossil was buried deep in the cliff, about 11 meters above the ground and 15 meters down the cliff, local paleontologist Steve Etches, who helped uncover it, told CNN.
"It died in the right environment, there was a lot of sedimentation ... so when it died and went down to the seafloor, it got buried quite quickly," said Etches.
According to a report in Encyclopaedia Britannica, the skull in its fossilized form weighs over half a metric ton, and a normal Pilosaur, upon maturity, grows up to 15 meters in length.
The upcoming documentary claims that intact fossil clearly indicates the characteristics that made the pliosaur a truly fearsome predator in the seas. The sensory pits of the skull are clearly visible in the fossil, and this feature may have helped this giant to detect changes in the water pressure.
