and i looked down, ijust saw this series of ridges in the mud and thought, that looks different, there's something there that's different. and it had organic features almost where it connects onto the rib. so, yeah, that's when we thought we need to call somebody and find out. a team of experts was quickly dispatched. joe hadn't found a dinosaur, but it was an ichthyosaur — a monstrous, air—breathing sea reptile, also known as a sea dragon, that swam about 180 million years ago. back then, rutland and most of the midlands was under water, covered by a warm, shallow sea. what makes this particular sea dragon so special is its size and condition. this is a backbone, so it's part of the spine, and this is one of more than 150 individual vertebrae in this entire skeleton. so, this individual is not only the most complete ichthyosaur skeleton ever found, the biggest one ever