{"id":11104,"date":"2022-07-30T12:27:54","date_gmt":"2022-07-30T12:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/eye-popping-fossil-fish-found-in-cattle-field"},"modified":"2022-07-30T13:26:48","modified_gmt":"2022-07-30T13:26:48","slug":"eye-popping-fossil-fish-found-in-cattle-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/eye-popping-fossil-fish-found-in-cattle-field","title":{"rendered":"Eye-popping fossil fish found in cattle field"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. <\/strong><\/span>A ferocious-looking fossil fish has been unearthed from a remarkable new Jurassic dig site just outside Stroud, in Gloucestershire.<\/b><\/p>\n

The creature – a tuna-like predator called Pachycormus – is beautifully preserved in three dimensions.<\/p>\n

With its big teeth and eyes, it gives the impression it is about to launch an attack.<\/p>\n

The specimen was identified by prolific West Country fossil-hunters Neville and Sally Hollingworth.<\/p>\n

“It was a real surprise because, when you find fossils, most of the time they’ve been pressed flat through pressure over time,” Neville told BBC News.<\/p>\n

“But when we prepared this one, to reveal its bones bit by bit, it was amazing because we suddenly realised its skull was uncrushed.<\/p>\n

“Its mouth is open – and it looks like it’s coming out at you from the rock.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The couple found the fish head in a grassy bank behind a cow shed in the village of Kings Stanley.<\/p>\n

It had been encased in one of the many limestone nodules that were falling out from an exposed clay layer.<\/p>\n

The landowner, Adam Knight, had no idea his English longhorn cattle were grazing on top of a rich fossil seam, recalling a time, 183 million years ago, when his farm would have been lying under warm tropical ocean waters.<\/p>\n

Mr Knight gave permission to Neville and Sally, and a team led from the University of Manchester, to investigate the bank further.<\/p>\n

A digger was brought in to extract hundreds more of the nodules, which were carefully cracked open to see what they held inside.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The haul included more fish, squids and even the bones of two ichthyosaurs, hugely successful marine reptiles that looked a bit like a large dolphin.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got the whole food chain,” palaeontologist Dean Lomax, from Manchester, said.<\/p>\n

“So this Pachycormus would have been eating the smaller fish and squids.<\/p>\n

“And then, the ichthyosaurs would have been eating the Pachycormus.”<\/p>\n

Interestingly for a marine setting, there is also fossilised wood and insects in the clay layer, suggesting land was not that far away.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Play with a 3D model of Pachycormus here.<\/p>\n

The finds are likely to keep researchers busy for a number of years.<\/p>\n

There is particular interest because the specimens were extracted from a rare UK example of a time slice in the early Jurassic – the Toarcian Stage.<\/p>\n

It is known for exceptional preservation, including of soft tissues, and the team has a fish, for example, in which it is possible to see the stomach contents.<\/p>\n

“The last comparable exposure like this was the so-called Strawberry Bank Lagerst\u00e4tte, in Somerset, in the 1800s – that got built over,” Sally said.<\/p>\n

“The Court Farm site allows scientists to do modern research with fresh, in-situ material.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Hollingworths are celebrated for their extraordinary ability to identify highly productive fossil locations.<\/p>\n

They recently uncovered the remains of mammoths in the nearby Cotswold Water Park, featured in a BBC documentary fronted by Sir David Attenborough.<\/p>\n

They also made headlines with the discovery of thousands of fossilised echinoderms – starfish, sea urchins and brittle stars – in a quarry in the north of the county.<\/p>\n

“These sites tell you there are still many nationally and indeed internationally significant fossil discoveries yet to be made in the UK,” Dr Lomax said.<\/p>\n

The intention is to stage a public display of the fossils at the Boho Bakery Caf\u00e9, which is very close to Court Farm, in October.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Botswana<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. A ferocious-looking fossil fish has been unearthed from a remarkable new Jurassic dig site just outside Stroud, in Gloucestershire. The creature – a tuna-like predator called Pachycormus – is beautifully preserved in three dimensions. With its big teeth and eyes, it gives the impression it is about to launch an attack. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":11103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9,16],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-11104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-botswana","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"\nEye-popping fossil fish found in cattle field - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A ferocious-looking fossil fish has been unearthed from a remarkable new Jurassic dig site just outside Stroud, in Gl ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/eye-popping-fossil-fish-found-in-cattle-field\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eye-popping fossil fish found in cattle field\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A ferocious-looking fossil fish has been unearthed from a remarkable new Jurassic dig site just outside Stroud, in Gl ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/eye-popping-fossil-fish-found-in-cattle-field\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Botswana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-30T12:27:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-30T13:26:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_23-62e5316755e7b.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"976\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"832\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/eye-popping-fossil-fish-found-in-cattle-field#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/eye-popping-fossil-fish-found-in-cattle-field\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Eye-popping fossil fish found in cattle field\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-30T12:27:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-30T13:26:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/eye-popping-fossil-fish-found-in-cattle-field\"},\"wordCount\":588,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/eye-popping-fossil-fish-found-in-cattle-field#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_23-62e5316755e7b.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Botswana\",\"Botswana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"miscellaneous\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/eye-popping-fossil-fish-found-in-cattle-field#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/eye-popping-fossil-fish-found-in-cattle-field\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/eye-popping-fossil-fish-found-in-cattle-field\",\"name\":\"Eye-popping fossil fish found in cattle field - 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