Huge, 5" Ichthyosaur (Brachypterygius) Vertebrae - England

This is a large and well preserved Ichthyosaur vertebrae from the Jurassic aged Kimmeridge Clay, in England. It's was dredged from Weymouth Harbour in Dorest, England. It would be Middle Jurassic in age, or approximately 160 million years old.

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.