Large Ichthyosaur Vertebra From Dorest, UK

This is a large and nicely preserved Ichthyosaur from the Jurassic aged Kimmeridge Clay, in England. It's 3.8" wide and in better condition that the vast majority of verts from this location which are heavily eroded and damaged.

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.

Belemnites were an extinct order of cephalopods (think shelled squid) that lived during the Mesozoic era.