VERNAL, Utah (KUTV) – A team of paleontologists from Utah State Parks recently recovered part of a fossilized marine reptile on the shores of the Flaming Gorge Reservoir in northeast Utah, thanks to the keen eye of a local boater.
The fossil was first discovered by Alan Dailey from Hooper, who was out by boat on the reservoir in May. Dailey contacted state paleontologists and sent photos of the fossil as he had left it in the field.
When experts arrived on the scene, they discovered that Dailey had discovered the fossilized forefins, vertebrae and ribs of an animal known as the ichthyosaur or “fish lizard” that lived in the sea path in the Flaming Gorge region during the Late Jurassic.
Ichthyosaurs were not dinosaurs, but marine reptiles that swam in the seas of the Mesozoic Era from the earliest dinosaurs to shortly before the dinosaurs’ extinction – a span of nearly 130 million years.
Dailey’s ichthyosaur was the size of a dolphin, and although it was a reptile, it resembled dolphins with its long snout and conical teeth, streamlined body, and tail designed for speed, according to a Utah State Parks press release on Tuesday afternoon.
Other ichthyosaurs were previously discovered in Utah, but those finds consisted mostly of isolated vertebrae.
The ichthyosaur discovered by Dailey includes the almost complete and articulated front fin, as well as 10 ribs and 19 articulated vertebrae, making it “one of the better specimens of ichthyosaur out there,” Utah State Parks experts said.
“The ichthyosaur was found in sandstone that also preserved fossils of oysters and squid-like belemnoids (extinct creatures related to modern octopus) that lived by sea at the same time,” said museum curator John Foster of the Utah Field House of Natural History .
“It’s not often that a whole fin is laid like this in the rock – so it’s fun to be able to imagine a fast-swimming ichthyosaur so long ago chasing prey through the warm seawater of our region.”
It took some manpower to get the 400-pound block of sandstone that contained the fossil into a boat on the shore. Fortunately, the collection team was assisted by an experienced forklift driver in the Lucerne marina, who was able to unload the boat and carefully place the fossil block on the back of a museum car for transport.
Dailey’s fossil record is now safely located in the Utah Field House of Natural History in Vernal.
The next steps for the Dailey Ichthyosaur specimen will be with the lab workers removing rocks covering some of the bones to better expose the skeleton. This gives paleontologists a better indication of what species of ichthyosaur the specimen is.
The fossil will eventually be exhibited in the museum.
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