"Father-Daughter Team Unearths Largest Marine Reptile, Matching Blue Whales in Size"
British paleontologists discovered a surangular bone in Somerset, UK, suggesting the existence of a massive ichthyosaur, estimated to be between 22 and 26 meters long, potentially rivaling the size of blue whales. Another set of bones found in 1846 in southwestern England, previously thought to belong to dinosaurs, were reattributed to ichthyosaurs, with one estimated to be over 30 meters long. The findings shed light on the incredible size of late Triassic ichthyosaurs and their eventual extinction during the end-Triassic mass extinction event.