That's where the fossilized skull of a giant "sea monster" has been discovered on a Dorset beach, part of the UK's Jurassic Coast. The remains are what is thought to be the world's biggest-ever sea monster.
Richard Edmonds, manager for the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, explained why the find was so exciting.
Richard Edmonds, earth science researcher, said, "What we have is the skull of an enormous marine reptile called a Pliosaur, this is the top of the skull, there is the snout, it would have risen up, it's been crushed a fair degree, risen up to the back of the skull here, and that would have sat on top of the jaws over here. So we're looking at an animal this high, with a skull coming down towards the mouth and joining up. We're missing the very end here, it probably fell out of the cliffs several decades ago, here are the jaws of course, there would have been great big teeth sticking out here probably up to about 20 centimeters or longer out of the side of the skull. I mean an absolutely awesome marine reptile, the top predator of the Jurassic sea 150 million years ago."
Pliosaurs were giant aquatic reptiles that lived in the seas at around the same time dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
They had short necks and huge, crocodile like heads that contained immensely powerful jaws and a set of huge 20cm long, razor-sharp teeth, they used four paddle-like limbs to propel their bulky bodies through the water.
Paleontologist, Richard Forrest explained that studying the skull explains just how powerful the ancient creature was.
Richard Forrest, paleontologist, said, "We can also look at the architecture of the skull in terms of an engineering object, and from the top of the skull where we can see the apertures the muscles went through and the lower jaw where you can just see from the sheer depth and thickness of the jaw that this was an enormously strong structural element. Bone is roughly the same strength as steel so if you can imagine a steel beam the size of the lower jaw I'll give you some idea of the sort of forces that the bite of this animal could exert."
The giant Pliosaur fossil was purchased by Dorset County Council for twenty-thousand pounds with money from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
After it has been scientifically analyzed and prepared, it is to be put on display at Dorchester's Dorset County Museum.
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