The Creature From Cambridgeshire Quarry

The remains of a giant sea monster that ruled the oceans 90 million years ago have been unearthed - at a Cambridgeshire quarry. Parts of the skeleton of an ichthyosaur, and some of its teeth, have been found on the Cemex site at Barrington. The discovery was made by quarry manager John Drayton, who has worked there for 35 years and who is an amateur geologist. "I was walking along and I saw what looked like the claws of something lying on the ground," says John. "I e-mailed a photo of them to a friend of mine - and he quickly replied to say they were the teeth of an ichthyosaur." Icthyosaurs were denizens of the sea during the Cretaceous period, eating mainly fish, and could grow to be 30 feet (nine metres) long. The base of the quarry excavations where the bones and teeth have been found is about 50 metres below ground level, and millions of years ago it would have been a sandy seabed - much of Cambridgeshire was underwater at the time. The find has excited palaeontology staff at the Natural History Museum in London. A team from the museum is working in the quarry, carefully excavating the area where the remains were found. Scott Moore-Fay, who is in charge of fossil preparation for the museum, said: "It's a very exciting find, and possibly the best one that has been unearthed in the county. "We don't know yet whether we will uncover an entire skeleton, or whether there will be just parts of it remaining. "As well as the ichthyosaur, we have found sharks' teeth, so it is possible the reptile was predated itself. We'll perhaps know if and when we find any of its bones with teeth marks on them." So far about four ichthyosaur teeth have come to light, but a fully-grown creature would have had between 100 and 200 of them. A number of vertebrae from its backbone have also been found. "We think this specimen was about seven metres (23 ft) long, and when we have finished looking over the site, we will take all the bones and teeth back to London and decide whether they should be displayed," Scott says.