Radically different' new fossil found in Nottingham

📰 : 'Radically different' new fossil found in Nottingham

A fossil once used in primary school lessons has been identified as a new species by an expert. The protoichthyosaurus, a shark-like swimming reptile, has been kept in a University of Nottingham storeroom since the 1970s.

Now, as part of a wider study of the ichthyosaur group, researchers say it is the first known fossil of this particular species in the world. The reptile lived about 200 million years ago in the early Jurassic period.

Dr David Large, a geologist and head of the department of chemical and environmental engineering at the university, said he recently rediscovered the fossil, which he had used for teaching in primary schools, sitting on a storeroom shelf. Dr Large retrieved it and palaeontologists and scientists have now said it is a "radically different" new species.