Marine reptile collection
Skull of the ichthyosaur Temnodontosaurus platydon, the first ever discovered. Mary Anning's brother Joseph found it in 1810 and Mary found the neck region a year later.
The Natural History Museum’s palaeontological collections contain many marine reptile specimens from the Lower Lias of the Dorset coast, including some discovered by Mary Anning.
Highlights include:
- the first ichthyosaur skull, now called Temnodontosaurus platyodon, discovered in 1810
- the first articulated plesiosaur, Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus, discovered in 1823
Both are on display in the Museum’s Fossil Marine Reptile Gallery.
Other important marine reptile fossils from the Lower Lias include those of Thomas Hawkins and the Earl of Enniskillen. Both purchased specimens from Mary Anning.
Large collections of Callovian (Middle Jurassic) marine reptiles from Cambridgeshire brick pits were purchased from Alfred Leeds in 1890 and 1914.
These include many type and figured skeletons of plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs and marine crocodiles. Particularly fine examples include the complete mounted skeletons of:
- the plesiosaur Cryptocleidus eurymerus, on display in the Museum’s From the Beginning gallery
- the ichthyosaur Ophthalmosaurus icenicus, on display in the Museum’s Central Hall.
There are also small numbers of isolated bones and teeth of both ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs from a range of Late Jurassic and Cretaceous sites in Britain and a unique plesiosaur, Leptoclidus, from the Wealden of Sussex.
More recent acquisitions include 2 Pleinsbachian ichthyosaurs from the Dorset coast, including the type specimen of Leptonectes moorei.