World's first fish-eating dinosaur discovered
17th July 2006
Jaws: Claws had twice as many teeth as a T-rex with a long, low snout like a crocodile packed with 96 serrated teeth
In the murky shadows, he lay in wait for his prey, ready to snare them with his murderous claws and crush in his jagged jaws.
But unlike his modern-day counterpart Jaws who prefers to fish in tropical waters, Claws, as this monster is known, stalked the swamps and rivers of the Home Counties 125 million years ago.
Now the world's first fish-eating dinosaur to be discovered has been unveiled in full for the first time after 23 years of painstaking investigation.
Claws, whose full name is Baryonyx Walkeri which means Heavy Claw, was first unearthed in a Surrey clay quarry near Dorking by an unlikely fossil hunter- a plumber from south west London.
Peering through the drizzle on a miserable January afternoon in 1983, a strange rock caught William Walker's eye.
Leaning closer in the hope of uncovering an interesting shell, he unwittingly made the dinosaur discovery of the century.
The dinosaur lived in the swamps and rivers of what is now the Home Counties and other areas of South East England 125 million years ago.
Buried in the rock deep within Smokejacks Pit was a murderously large hooked 31 cm claw, almost as big as a human head.
Mr Walker, 55, attempted to chip away at the rock with his hammer, but the blow split the claw into several pieces.
At the time he said: "I hit it with a hammer, primarily to break the rock away and see what was in there and the whole thing disintegrated, the claw as well, I could have cried."
Distraught, Mr Walker sent his son-in-law with the fragments to the National History Museum for expert examination.
At first it was dismissed as the remains of a large crocodile, but paleontologists returned to the site to excavate the rest of the skeleton, which would have been destroyed in days by bulldozers working in the quarry. The contents of the creature's stomach send shockwaves through the scientific community, as Claws didn't just eat meat and vegetables like other species, he was the first dinosaur found to feast on fish.
The bones-enough to fill three vans- were taken back to the museum, but it took 23 years of research before experts were able to piece together what Claws would have looked like.
Now a life-size robotic model has been unveiled at the National History Museum.
Lead paleontologist, Dr Angela Milner said: "When I saw the claw, it immediately occurred to me that it was different from any other dinosaur I'd ever seen. We never knew that dinosaurs ate fish before. It was an incredible discovery.
"We got there just in time. The remains could have been destroyed by a bulldozer that day. It's incredibly exciting to see what he would have looked like for the first time." Baryonyx remains have since been uncovered in northern Spain and the Niger in Africa, but the find in Surrey remains the most complete and largest skeleton - with 65 per cent of the bones unearthed.
When he died at the age of ten, Claws was 4m tall, 10m long, weighing two tonnes.
Scientists estimate that he could have grown up to a third bigger if he'd lived another twenty years.
He lived predominantly on fish, guzzling 25 kilogrammes a day of a pre-historic fish called Lepidote, using his powerful limbs and immense claws to scoop them out of the water, much like a grizzly bear does with salmon.
There is also evidence that he may have been a scavenger as remains of a smaller dinosaur called Iguanoden was also found in his stomach.
Claws had twice as many teeth as a T-rex, with a long, low snout like a crocodile packed with 96 serrated teeth. Though he is not Britain's biggest dinosaur, it is the largest complete dinosaur skeleton ever found in the UK.
The skeleton and life-size model of Claws is currently on show at the Dino Jaws exhibition at the museum until April next year.
dailymail.co.uk
17th July 2006
Jaws: Claws had twice as many teeth as a T-rex with a long, low snout like a crocodile packed with 96 serrated teeth
In the murky shadows, he lay in wait for his prey, ready to snare them with his murderous claws and crush in his jagged jaws.
But unlike his modern-day counterpart Jaws who prefers to fish in tropical waters, Claws, as this monster is known, stalked the swamps and rivers of the Home Counties 125 million years ago.
Now the world's first fish-eating dinosaur to be discovered has been unveiled in full for the first time after 23 years of painstaking investigation.
Claws, whose full name is Baryonyx Walkeri which means Heavy Claw, was first unearthed in a Surrey clay quarry near Dorking by an unlikely fossil hunter- a plumber from south west London.
Peering through the drizzle on a miserable January afternoon in 1983, a strange rock caught William Walker's eye.
Leaning closer in the hope of uncovering an interesting shell, he unwittingly made the dinosaur discovery of the century.
The dinosaur lived in the swamps and rivers of what is now the Home Counties and other areas of South East England 125 million years ago.
Buried in the rock deep within Smokejacks Pit was a murderously large hooked 31 cm claw, almost as big as a human head.
Mr Walker, 55, attempted to chip away at the rock with his hammer, but the blow split the claw into several pieces.
At the time he said: "I hit it with a hammer, primarily to break the rock away and see what was in there and the whole thing disintegrated, the claw as well, I could have cried."
Distraught, Mr Walker sent his son-in-law with the fragments to the National History Museum for expert examination.
At first it was dismissed as the remains of a large crocodile, but paleontologists returned to the site to excavate the rest of the skeleton, which would have been destroyed in days by bulldozers working in the quarry. The contents of the creature's stomach send shockwaves through the scientific community, as Claws didn't just eat meat and vegetables like other species, he was the first dinosaur found to feast on fish.
The bones-enough to fill three vans- were taken back to the museum, but it took 23 years of research before experts were able to piece together what Claws would have looked like.
Now a life-size robotic model has been unveiled at the National History Museum.
Lead paleontologist, Dr Angela Milner said: "When I saw the claw, it immediately occurred to me that it was different from any other dinosaur I'd ever seen. We never knew that dinosaurs ate fish before. It was an incredible discovery.
"We got there just in time. The remains could have been destroyed by a bulldozer that day. It's incredibly exciting to see what he would have looked like for the first time." Baryonyx remains have since been uncovered in northern Spain and the Niger in Africa, but the find in Surrey remains the most complete and largest skeleton - with 65 per cent of the bones unearthed.
When he died at the age of ten, Claws was 4m tall, 10m long, weighing two tonnes.
Scientists estimate that he could have grown up to a third bigger if he'd lived another twenty years.
He lived predominantly on fish, guzzling 25 kilogrammes a day of a pre-historic fish called Lepidote, using his powerful limbs and immense claws to scoop them out of the water, much like a grizzly bear does with salmon.
There is also evidence that he may have been a scavenger as remains of a smaller dinosaur called Iguanoden was also found in his stomach.
Claws had twice as many teeth as a T-rex, with a long, low snout like a crocodile packed with 96 serrated teeth. Though he is not Britain's biggest dinosaur, it is the largest complete dinosaur skeleton ever found in the UK.
The skeleton and life-size model of Claws is currently on show at the Dino Jaws exhibition at the museum until April next year.
dailymail.co.uk
