Athena Review Image Archive ™
Ichthyosaurus platydon skull found by Joseph Anning
Skull of Ichthyosaurus platydon found by Joseph Anning (after Everard Home 1814)
Ichthyosaurus platydon
was a large marine reptile from the Early Jurassic period, dating from
200-195 mya. Its skull was found by Joseph Anning, brother of Mary
Anning, in 1811 at Lyme Regis, in the Blue Lias formation along
the south coast of Devonshire, England.
The skull measured 4 feet in length. A few months later, an entire skeleton of Ichthyosaurus platydon was found by Mary Anning (then age 12). These were among several important finds she would make of skeletons of large Jurassic sea reptiles of species never before described.
The finds of Ichthyosaurus platydon were published in 1814 by Everard Home, a surgeon and anatomist who was the first to formally describe it.
References:
Home, Everard 1814
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