00:00Back in 2016, a fossil was found on a beach in the UK.
00:07One researcher believed it was unusual, because the animal that once possessed it would have
00:11had to be huge.
00:12Then, in 2020, while walking along a beach in Somerset in the UK, 11-year-old Ruby Reynolds
00:17and her father, Justin Reynolds, discovered another part of a jaw which likely belonged
00:21to the same creature.
00:22Now experts say those fossils likely belonged to the Ichthyotitan Severnensis, a marine
00:27reptile that swam around the ocean some 202 million years ago.
00:31Paleontologists say the behemoth swam around the United Kingdom in the Triassic period.
00:36No other marine reptiles, and you can include turtles and crocodiles, no other marine reptiles
00:42got as large as these animals did.
00:45That's Dean Lomax, lead author on the recently published study naming the new creature.
00:50He says that it likely would have grown to a length of up to 85 feet, making it the largest
00:54reptile to have ever lived.
00:56For reference, the blue whale, the largest creature in history as far as we know, can
01:00reach lengths of 100 feet.
01:02What's more, Lomax adds that this creature is also the last to be dated within its family,
01:06meaning it lived 13 million years later than any others of its kind.
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