3.9" Cut/Polished Ichthyosaurus (Brachypterigus) Vertebrae - England

This is a rare section of polished bone from the Ichthyosaurus, Brachypterigus cf. extremis. The bone comes from the Middle Jurassic (160 million year old) age of England. This vertebrae has been cut and polished on one side to reveal the beautifully preserved cell structure.

Ichthyosaurs ("Fish Lizard") was a giant marine reptile which thrived from much of the Mesozoic era. They evolved in the mid Triassic from a group of unidentified land reptiles which transition back into the water. This line evolved in parallel to the ancestors of todays dolphins and whales, something known as convergent evolution.