The Mystery of Sea Creatures (2/5): A giant Jurassic sea dragon, unearthed | Dean R. Lomax

0:00It is summer where I live, and luckily, I live near the Pacific Ocean. As the weather continues to heat up, I'm spending more time at the beach. It always makes me wonder, what's going on under the water? From the deep sea to the shoreline, the ocean is teeming with creatures that are stranger, smarter, and more surprising than most of us could ever dream up. For July's TED Talks Daily playlist, we have gathered five of our favorite talks that dive into the awe-inspiring and occasionally mind-bending creatures from orcas to kinky fish that live beneath the waves. Happy listening.

0:38You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. Dinosaurs. You're about to hear the exciting story of the excavation of a Jurassic giant, led by the excavation leader, Dean Lomax. In his 2022 talk from TEDxManchester, he describes the work it took to uncover the ichthyosaur fossil. And in doing so, he sheds light on the ways modern technology has revolutionized paleontology. That's coming up right after a short break.

1:19This episode is brought to you by Dell. Back to school starts now. Get long-lasting battery life on the Dell XPS laptop, powered by Series 3 Intel Core so you can work from anywhere. Now starting at$699 with exclusive student pricing starting at$599. And it's lightweight, portable, and packed with enough processing power to make multitasking a breeze. So say goodbye to distractions and hello to more free time because you finished your work faster. Complete your setup with savings on select monitors and more must-have electronics and accessories. Limited time deals and free shipping on PCs and more await you at Dell.com slash deals.

1:59That's Dell.com slash deals.

2:05This message is brought to you by Apple Card. Apple Card puts the power of titanium in the palm of your hand. What does that mean? It means the power to earn unlimited daily cash back on your purchases every day. It means a materially different credit card accepted anywhere in the world. MasterCard is accepted. Ditch the plastic. Upgrade to titanium. Apply in the Wallet app on iPhone today. Subject to credit approval, Apple Card is issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City Branch, Terms and more at AppleCard.com. This episode is sponsored by Kohler Smart Toilets. The objects we interact with most are often the ones we notice least.

2:43But what if the most overlooked space in your home could be the most considered? Kohler Smart Toilet challenges that assumption. Their Veil Smart Toilet is a sculptural silhouette that isn't just intentional, it's a philosophy. That design changes everything. The Kohler Veil Smart Toilet is sleek with a rounded shape that's more like architecture than just plumbing. And it goes beyond looks. The touchscreen controls and customizable cleansing features offer a level of comfort and cleanliness that exceeds expectations. It's all about elevating those ordinary daily rituals into something extraordinary through thoughtful design.

3:17Kohler has been pushing these boundaries for over 150 years, mastering that balance of stunning form and high-performance function. That's a long time to get it right, and it shows in every detail. Experience the difference of Kohler Smart Toilets. Find out more at Kohler.com.

3:35And now, our TED Talk of the day.

3:38Dean R. Lomax: Paleontology. I know what you're all thinking. Jurassic Park? Maybe Ross Fromm Friends? Perhaps even Indiana Jones? But that's archaeology. Let me show you some real paleontology. Now, first of all, let's take a step back in time. Not quite to the Jurassic, at least not yet, bought to January 21st, 2021, when I received an email about a curious discovery made in Rutland, in the Midlands. As a paleontologist, you can probably imagine, I get countless messages and emails from people saying, oh, we've made a cool fossil discovery. Being completely honest, most of the time, it turns out to be, well, a weird-shaped rock.

4:37Dean R. Lomax: But little did I know, this email would change my life. The find had been made at Rutland Water Nature Reserve by Joe Davis, who works for the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust to run the reserve in partnership with Anglin Water, who own the land, whilst doing some routine maintenance in one of the reserve's lagoons. He'd lowered the water levels, and Joe had spotted by chance this structure. Unsure of what to make of it, he thought, hmm, could this be a bit of old pipe maybe? Or perhaps? Is this a dinosaur skeleton? He joked.

5:23Luckily, Joe thought to himself,

5:25Dean R. Lomax: well, is this, could it be an important discovery? So crucially, he sought expert advice. When these photos pinged into my inbox, I immediately recognized them as large vertebrae from the spine of an ichthyosaur, or what is colloquially known as a sea dragon. Now, I do need to clear that name up just a little bit, because I'm sorry to say they're not dragons. Sorry. They're also not swimming dinosaurs. They're not the Loch Ness Monster on tour either. and they're most definitely not, as the BBCs of them, sea dragon dinosaur dolphin fossils. Terrible. Ichthyosaurs are, in fact, an awesome group of ancient marine reptiles that lived in the prehistoric seas as dinosaurs reigned supreme on land.

6:24Dean R. Lomax: Like modern-day whales and dolphins, they gave birth to live young, and they breathed there. Unfortunately, ichthyosaurs went extinct around 90 million years ago. Our Rutland ichthyosaur lived during the early Jurassic, around about 180 million years ago. This is a time when Rutland was deep underwater, covered by an ancient tropical sea. Now, I've spent most of my professional career of around 14 years studying thousands of ichthyosaurs. And this has been a great pleasure to travel around the world, study lots and lots of ichthyosaurs. And so when I received these photos, I immediately knew that this could be something very special indeed.

7:14Dean R. Lomax: But of course, just looking at photos, it's hard to know exactly whether this is going to be something unique or is it just a few vertebrae? After speaking to fellow marine reptile expert, Dr. Mark Evans, who has also sent details of the find, we decided to visit the site in February and lead an islander mini-excavation, a bit of an exploratory dig to see what we could uncover. On a cold day in February, where the ground was literally frozen right beneath our feet, after spending so much time meticulously removing the Jurassic clay from around the skeleton, we were blown away because we revealed what appeared to be a gigantic skeleton unlike anything ever found in Britain before.

8:02Clearly, this was a big deal.

8:06Dean R. Lomax: But we had to be very quick to contain our excitement because due to the damp, wintry conditions and the fact that this was a super fragile skeleton, it meant it wasn't the right time to collect this ichthyosaur. So unfortunately, it might seem a little bit counterintuitive, but we had to rebury the ichthyosaur and we had to cover it with plastic sheets and then Jurassic clay. Because you have to remember, this, of course, is an active nature reserve. And so they had to also, the nature reserve, they had to raise the water levels to... Then the ichthyosaur went back under the water. But it was actually protected.

8:43Dean R. Lomax: And then waiting for what felt like millions of years...

8:51Dean R. Lomax: In six months, we were back on site, but this time with a superb team of paleontologists. Whilst we, when we arrived on site, we had to pick up where we left off. And so we removed those plastic sheets, removed the Jurassic clay, and started to expose some more of the skeleton. We were overly ambitious in February. We thought, based on that little dig that we did, the one-day excavation, we thought, okay, we could probably get the entire skeleton out of the ground in just one week. Yeah, we were wrong. The skeleton was much larger, more important, and more complete than any of us would have imagined.

9:32Dean R. Lomax: And it doubled our time on site. We spent 14 and a half days altogether, spread over to three weeks, and this was also working very long hours from sunrise to sunset. whilst the team was excavating the ichthyosaur we also had to look out for all sorts of other pieces in the surrounding matrix of the ichthyosaur we also found hundreds of these squid-like ammonites we found lots of fossil shells and these are all really important because they helped to build up this bigger picture of the ancient Jurassic ecosystem in which this ichthyosaur lived the team also had to move fast as well this really was quite a race against time because once we exposed the skeleton, there was more chance that it could end up degrading further.

10:21Dean R. Lomax: So team members like Dr. Emma Nichols here had to apply a consolidant of thin glue that seeps into the bones and helps them to become more robust to remove the skeleton out of the ground. Once we'd fully exposed the skeleton, we then could eventually record all of our measurements and get a full data set. For example, like for the skull. Nigel here, who I co-led the excavation with, so Nigel focused on the conservation side of things, ensuring that the ichthyosaur remains safe and secure throughout the entire excavation. Whilst on site, one of the team members, Steve Day, created a wonderful photogrammetry model, which photogrammetry is an interesting technique where you take thousands of photos and put them together and build a three-dimensional model.

11:08Dean R. Lomax: This is the sort of techniques that are sort of revolutionizing paleontology. We're able to capture all of this data whilst the ichthyosaur is sat in the ground. So before we've even removed anything, now we've taken that out of the ground, we still have this data, and we can send that to our colleagues all around the world. Of course, now, fully uncovered, it's time to literally get this Jurassic giant out of the ground. Much easier said than done when you're dealing with such a complete and very heavy fossil weighing several tons. The first port of call was to create a trench all the way around the skeleton.

11:45Dean R. Lomax: And the reason for that is that we needed to get right on underneath the skeleton so that we could begin the process of plaster jacketing. Now, plaster jacketing is an important process in the field of paleontology. We use these protective plaster jackets that essentially care for and secure the bones and the surrounding matrix so that we can take them out of the field and into the lab so that we can analyze the fossil and the matrix and work out what's going on. We also had to, for the bigger skull block and the body block, we also had to create a wooden frame to help support the immense weight.

12:22Dean R. Lomax: After various challenges on site, we finally managed to remove the entire skeleton after dissecting it into several more manageable blocks. But this one block here, which is the main body block, this weighed one and a half tons. It's actually been removed, which is quite nice. It's actually been removed by Joe Davis, who found the ichthyosaur. And this was an interesting moment for the team, because it's quite an emotional moment, because we'd spent and invested so much time and energy into this ichthyosaur excavation, that this moment captured that final piece where we're removing this from its final resting place, 180 million years ago.

13:03Dean R. Lomax: On January 10th, 2022, This is almost one year after Joe had made that incredible discovery. Anglian Water and the University of Manchester issued a joint press release announcing the find. Amazingly, the story went viral. We were picked up on a multitude of different platforms. TV, radio, newspaper went viral all across social media. We were thrilled to bits with this. It was amazing. Amazing response about our beautiful ichthyosaur. But one of the things is, why do you think exactly did this ichthyosaur get so much interest? First of all, everybody loves a cool fossil, especially when it's big and it's complete.

13:47Dean R. Lomax: So you've got a massive tick there. But genuinely, this ichthyosaur was an apex predator at the very top of its food chain in the Jurassic Sea. So again, another big tick. But on top of that, one thing that's important to highlight is the very fact that Britain is the birthplace of ichthyosaurs. This was the first ichthyosaur specimen brought to the attention of science found by Mary and Joseph Anning more than 200 years ago in Lyme Regis on the Dorset coast. Nowadays, finding ichthyosaur fossils in the UK, Generally, they're found on the Somerset, the Dorset, and the Yorkshire coastlines, and that's because you have the constant erosion of the foreshore and the cliffs.

14:35Dean R. Lomax: You might be lucky to find, say, the isolated one or two vertebrae on the beach if you go looking, but still, finding a complete skeleton, and especially anything large, on the coastline is incredibly rare. This is why finding the Rutland ichthyosaur in the center of the UK in an unusual exposure is so extraordinarily rare. So what next for this significant specimen? Well, despite ongoing plans to try to replace the Rutland Water Nature Reserve with Jurassic Park... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I apologize. Compose myself, Dean. No, the next major step is for Nigel to clean and conserve the entire skeleton.

15:23Dean R. Lomax: And this is going to take at least two years to get to that point. At that stage, then me and the rest of the team were able to study the ichthyosaur in as much detail as possible and then prepare it for its eventual display at Rutland, where it will then attract, hopefully, millions of people who will travel around the world to come and see this specimen, marvel at this Jurassic giant, and understand the hidden history right beneath their feet.

15:52Dean R. Lomax: What an incredible journey. With most fossil finds, there's always an element of luck involved. You know, being in the right place at the right time. People search their entire lives for something like this and never even come close. The funny thing is, Joe wasn't even looking for this. he genuinely stumbled upon this exceptional discovery. At 10 meters long, the Rutland ichthyosaur is the most complete skeleton of a large prehistoric reptile ever found in the UK. This once-in-a-lifetime discovery represents one of the greatest finds in British paleontological history. On a personal level, leading this excavation and revealing this Jurassic giant has been one of the highlights of my career.

16:48Dean R. Lomax: Thank you all very much for letting me share this journey with you.

16:56That was Dean R. Lomax at TEDxManchester in the UK in 2022. This talk was originally published in September of that year. If you're curious about TED's curation, visit ted.com slash curationguidelines. And that's it for today. TED Talks Daily is a podcast from TED. This episode was produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Lucy Little, Emma Taubner, and Tansika Sunglarnival. Additional support from Daniela Ballarezzo, Christopher Faze-Bogan, Valentina Bohanini, Banban Chang, Brian Green, and Lainey Lott. Learn more at podcasts.ted.com. I am Elise Hu. Thanks for listening.

18:10Thank you. Terms apply. See CapitalOne.com slash bank. Capital One N.A. Member FDIC.

18:42AI specialists come in. They don't just tell you what you should do about your busy work. They actually do it. Start to finish. Cases closed. Requests handled. No extra work for you. To learn how to put AI to work for people, visit servicenow.com.