New UK pliosaur discovery

[ceratopsian]

Yes, the Steve Etches collection is indeed open to the public @Crackington in a lovely small purpose-built museum, down by Kimmeridge Bay.  We went in autumn 2019 - we made a long weekend of it.  Highly recommended - very well laid out and very informative labels.

Here's their website:

https://www.theetchescollection.org/steves-story

I watched the documentary too and really enjoyed it. David Attenborough's enthusiasm is so infectious.

I do agree with @ceratopsian that the initial finder was not properly credited. It would have been nice to see what he thought of the skull once it had been unveiled.

I wonder if the Steve Etches collection is open to the public, would love to see it.

[Flaffy]

Yes, the Steve Etches collection is indeed open to the public @Crackington in a lovely small purpose-built museum, down by Kimmeridge Bay.  We went in autumn 2019 - we made a long weekend of it.  Highly recommended - very well laid out and very informative labels.

Here's their website:

https://www.theetchescollection.org/steves-story

I watched the documentary too and really enjoyed it. David Attenborough's enthusiasm is so infectious.

I do agree with @ceratopsian that the initial finder was not properly credited. It would have been nice to see what he thought of the skull once it had been unveiled.

I wonder if the Steve Etches collection is open to the public, would love to see it.

Would've loved to visit The Etches Collection while I was down in Dorset. Unfortunately there are no reliable means of public transport to Kimmeridge Bay , and I don't have a car.

[ceratopsian]

That's a great shame, @Flaffy.

[Flaffy]

Philip Jacobs has expressed on FB that he is extremely disheartened at the seemingly intentional omission of the discoverer by the BBC. Very poor on the part of the media company

[Crackington]

That's dreadful, I hope the BBC are able to make amends and re-edit the documentary to properly acknowledge him. They should really be including him in the naming of it if it is a new species.
 
Thanks for the info on Steve Etches museum Ceratopsian.

[DinoToyForum]

That's dreadful, I hope the BBC are able to make amends and re-edit the documentary to properly acknowledge him. They should really be including him in the naming of it if it is a new species.
 
Thanks for the info on Steve Etches museum Ceratopsian.

I visited The Etches Collection: Museum of Jurassic Marine Life in October 2019 on a day field trip led by Wang Qi of the University of Nottingham. It is difficult to get to without a car so I was glad to have a space on the coach. Steve Etches was very generous with his time and gave the group a grand tour of both the museum and the nearby coastal exposures.

The museum has some impressive specimens on display and an immersive AV playing overhead in the main gallery, which makes it feel like you're under the Jurassic ocean with sea creatures swimming above the displays. This new pliosaur skull is a good reason to visit again, or to visit for the first time if you haven't been before. Do we not yet have a topic for this museum on the forum somewhere?

I was also all booked up to attend a Marine Reptile Conference there in 2021 but that event, of course, was postponed because of the Covid pandemic and eventually became a small online event in 2022 instead. Jonathan and I presented about our book The Plesiosaur's Neck!

The show is now on BBC's iplayer here, but I think it's only available to people in the UK, or with a VPN set to UK:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001txg2/attenborough-and-the-giant-sea-monster

The documentary refers to Philip only as a "fossil enthusiast" I think. It is a bit odd he wasn't named. They even use the footage he took showing and talking about the tip of the snout on the beach when he first found it. I remember seeing that footage when it was originally posted on social media, but I think he took the footage down when it became apparent it was a very important discovery.

[ceratopsian]

The BBC has given permission to the Etches Collection to put on Youtube the unused interview with Philip Jacobs in which he described finding the snout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQXAbq9DrEQ

[Crackington]

Thanks for sharing that @ceratopsian, lovely video and what a nice chap.

I can see why the Beeb might not have been able to include the interview in the finished programme due to time, but it surely wouldn't have hurt to just mention his name at the beginning so he got some acknowledgement?

His omission does leaves rather a sour note on an otherwise excellent documentary.

[ceratopsian]

I agree completely @Crackington. And it would have taken less time to name him than go through the amateur fossil collector line. At least a lot of newspapers have picked up the story and given his name prominence. Etches Collection say there will be a book about the find and excavation and will give him due credit.

As for his own video of the original find, from what was said online, it appears that the BBC were the ones who insisted on it being taken down. I assume that is correct.

[Prehistory Resurrection]

The skull made it into the World Records as the most complete of its kind;
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-dorset-68734920
Credit: BBC News

[DinoToyForum]

The skull made it into the World Records as the most complete of its kind;
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-dorset-68734920
Credit: BBC News

"of its kind" being the genus. I find this quite unusual since every genus of everything ever has a "most complete of its kind", but they don't usually get in the record books. It's like they tried to get it in the book as "the largest", a record that would make more sense, but it isn't the largest, so they had to come up with a different record to give this spectacular specimen.

A similar record exists for Tyrannosaurus. Favouritism! But at least this record is most complete and largest:
 https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/74707-largest-and-most-complete-tyrannosaurus-rex-skeleton