Fossils have been found in Somerset County in the nineteenth century.
Scientists have discovered two new species of ichthyosaurs.
Authors of scientific work was made by paleontologists, representing research centres of the USA and UK, studied the remains of prehistoric animals without resorting to excavations.
It is remarkable that the scientists did not conduct an archaeological expedition to make the discovery. Instead, researchers have to study Museum exhibits, one of which several dozen years of keeping Americans, and the second was in the UK.
Scientists have extensively studied the fossils obtained and carefully examined the skeletons, came to the conclusion that we are dealing with two new species of ichthyosaurs. Experts explained that previously, these creatures of prehistoric times, no one has classified and it turned out that they are unknown to science.
Open called ichthyosaurs Ichthyosaurus Ichthyosaurus and somersetensis larkini. First received the Latin definition of in honor of Somerset County, where they found the fossils of a prehistoric predator, and the second in honor of Nigel Larkin, a scientist from the UK who made a great contribution to the development of paleontology.
Thanks to the efforts of American and British scientists, science now knows six types of ichthyosaurs. Recall that these animals lived in the waters of the Earth in the Jurassic period, and as suggested by some paleontologists, are the distant ancestors of the dolphins.
