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A bone belonging to a giant 85-ft 'sea dragon' that roamed the British coast 205 million years ago has been dug up on a village beach.

Scientists say evidence of the massive ichtyosaur, which approaches the same size of a blue whale - has been discovered, making it one of the biggest animals that ever lived.

The prehistoric creature, known as a sea dragon, measures at more than 85 feet (26 metres) from head to tail.

Its jaw bone was dug up on the beach at Lilstock by fossil collector Paul de la Salle.

He then returned and found even more pieces that together measured about 3ft 3in (1m) in length.

This showed the creature would have been about a quarter larger than the previous record for an ichtyosaur - a discovery that stunned the researchers.

(Image: Tamura & Hartman/SWNS.com)

Mr de la Salle said: "Initially, the bone just looked like a piece of rock but, after recognising a groove and bone structure, I thought it might be part of a jaw from an ichthyosaur."

He immediately alerted palaeontologists Dean Lomax at Manchester University and Professor Judy Massare, of SUNY College at Brockport, New York, who are experts in ichtyosaurs.

He also contacted geologist Dr Ramues Gallois who visited the site and determined the age of the fossil by studying the rocks in which it was entombed.

Mr Lomax, of Manchester University, and Prof Massare of the State University of New York's Brockport College, identified it as an incomplete bone - or surangular - from the lower jaw of a giant ichthyosaur.

They said the bone would have made up only a portion of the entire skull.

(Image: Dean Lomax/SWNS.com)

They compared it with several ichthyosaurs and visited the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta, Canada.

This houses the largest ichthyosaur known - the shastasaurid Shonisaurus sikanniensis which is 69ft (21m) long.

They found similarities between the new specimen and S. sikanniensis - suggesting the Lilstock specimen belongs to a giant shastasaurid-like ichthyosaur.

Mr Lomax said: "As the specimen is represented only by a large piece of jaw it's difficult to provide a size estimate.

"But by using a simple scaling factor and comparing the same bone in S. sikanniensis the Lilstock specimen is about 25 per cent larger.

"Other comparisons suggest the Lilstock ichthyosaur was at least 20 to 25 metres (66 to 82ft).

"Of course, such estimates are not entirely realistic because of differences between species.

"Nonetheless, simple scaling is commonly used to estimate size - especially when comparative material is scarce."

The discovery described in PLOS One has also solved a 150 year old mystery of supposed 'dinosaur bones' from the UK - which were actually from ichtyosaurs.

In 1850 a large 208 million year-old bone from the Late Triassic was found at Aust Cliff in Gloucestershire - along with four other similarly incomplete fossils.

Two of them are now missing and presumed destroyed.

They have been identified as belonging to several dinosaurs including stegosaurs and sauropods, indeterminate species and other reptiles.

But the Lilstock fossil - which was found in May 2016 - shows this was not the case.

It also refutes the recent assertion the Aust bones represent dinosaur-like gigantism in terrestrial reptiles.

The bones are - in fact - jaw fragments of giant, previously unrecognised ichthyosaurs.

Mr Lomax said: "One of the Aust bones might also be an ichthyosaur surangular.

"If it is - by comparison with the Lilstock specimen - it might represent a much larger animal.

"To verify these findings we need a complete giant Triassic ichthyosaur from the UK - a lot easier said than done!"

Ichtyosaurs ruled the oceans during the age of the dinosaurs and are among the commonest fossils unearthed in the UK.

They are among the common fossil reptiles found in the UK - with thousands of specimens known.

Ichtyosaurs went extinct 90 million years ago - long before the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs - after an exceptionally long and successful run.

Like mammals they gave birth to live young. This represented a momentous evolutionary leap for these sea creatures - liberating them from having to lay eggs.

A modern example of this evolutionary 'limitation' can be seen in penguins who are forced to live a dual existence - procreating on land and sustaining themselves in the water.

Through evolution the Ichthyosaurs stumbled on a biological solution. Their name translates as 'fish lizards' from ancient Greek.

They were similar in appearance to porpoises - and were distant relatives of liquids and snakes.

It is thought they evolved from an unidentified reptile on the land that moved back into the water.

Their streamlined, fish-like form was ideal for reaching high speeds - reaching speeds of up to 22mph.

It also had limbs used to steer the animal and a long jaw and skill containing numerous teeth used to prey on other marine animals.

They first appeared around 250million years ago - 20 million years before the first dinosaurs emerged.