British and Canadian scientists on Thursday published the description of Xiphodracon goldencapensis, a dolphin-sized Early Jurassic ichthyosaur nicknamed the Dorset Sword Dragon, in Papers in Palaeontology. The study followed a full anatomical investigation in autumn 2024, ending more than two decades of curatorial limbo for the Royal Ontario Museum specimen.
Researchers dated the nearly three-metre animal to about 190 million years ago, during the Pliensbachian stage of the Early Jurassic. “It fills a long-standing gap in the ichthyosaur fossil record,” said Dean Lomax of the University of Manchester, according to ABC News.
Local fossil collector Chris Moore found the skeleton in 2001 near Golden Cap on Dorset’s Jurassic Coast. “I remember seeing this skeleton for the first time in 2016. At that time, I knew it was unusual, but I didn’t expect it to play such a crucial role in filling a gap in our understanding of the complex renewal of fauna in the Pliensbachian,” said Lomax, according to El Nuevo Día.
Lomax, Judy Massare of SUNY Brockport, and Erin Maxwell examined the fossil after years of transfers among several museums. Lomax called the reptile “a missing piece in the puzzle of ichthyosaurs,” according to GEO France.
The skull retained a three-dimensional shape with an enormous eye socket, a long sword-like snout, and exceptionally narrow teeth. “Xiphodracon translates as ‘dragon-like sword’, which refers to the long sword-like snout,” said Lomax, according to Deník. The rounded nasal opening further set it apart from other Early Jurassic ichthyosaurs, reported Sabah.
Massare noted that the reptile’s “very, very, very narrow teeth” indicate a diet of small fish and cephalopods, and stomach contents included fish and squid fragments, ABC News reported. The team estimated its length at nearly ten feet, similar to a modern dolphin.
Maxwell said malformed limb bones and teeth pointed to serious injury or disease while the animal was alive, while bite marks on the skull suggested a fatal attack by a larger predator, the New York Post reported.
Lomax told ABC News that ichthyosaurs from the 193–184 million-year interval are “incredibly rare,” and the Sword Dragon is probably the most complete marine reptile yet known from the Pliensbachian age.
Ichthyosaurs thrived between 245 million and 90 million years ago, were fully aquatic, and gave birth to live young. Dorset’s limestone cliffs continue to yield marine fossils; in 2023, another team announced a crocodile-like find from the same coastline, the New York Post reported.
“I don’t wish to blow my own ichthyosaur trumpet, but I have found a few of them,” said Moore, adding that he would mark the publication “with champagne or a mug of tea,” the New York Post reported.
Written with the help of a news-analysis system.