How we found a beast that would batter T Rex

Monster of deep dug out from Dorset cliff

- NICOLA METHVEN

WHEN Sir David Attenborough heard that the fossilised skull of a giant pliosaur had been found on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset he had one question to ask...

If the pliosaur had a fight with a T Rex, who would win?

The safe money seems to be on the pliosaur, which looks like a cross between a giant crocodile and a dolphin and was the biggest predator of the seas 153 million years ago, when the dinosaurs roamed the earth.

It was the length of a bus and had 90 razor-sharp teeth up to six inches long.

Sir David, 97, said: "It's bigger than the Tyrannosaurus Rex by a long way, so I asked this schoolboy question.

It was answered by Dr Andre Rowe, of the University of Bristol, who said the discovery of an intact skull of a pliosaur was a "one-in-a-billion” find.

And which prehistoric creature did he think would triumph? The pliosaur.

Palaeobiologist Prof Emily Rayfield agreed, saying the marine reptile had a bite so devastating it had twice the power of a great white shark.

She said: "I'm pretty sure it could bite through a car."

Fossil enthusiast Phil Jacobs was walking on a beach near Kimmeridge in Dorset when he spotted the tip of the pliosaur's snout in the sand.

He called his friend, local paleontologist Steve Etches, who realized it had fallen from the cliffs, which would have been the clay seabed 150 million years ago.

Using a drone he confirmed that the rest of the skull was still in there.

Steve said: "Phil thought it was a bit of wood at first.

"It was too heavy for him to carry in his rucksack, so we went down the very next day.

"We made a stretcher out of a ladder to strap it on with a bit of board and carry it back about a mile, which was extremely arduous, I can tell you.