This specimen, kindly on loan to us from the Krenn family, is known as 'Beasty the Ichthyosaur'. Beasty consists of a skull with an assemblage of disarticulated ribs on the posterior. At around 4m long, Beasty was cut down in his prime and sunk to the ocean floor. His streamlined head penetrated the sediment but the rest of his body decayed and collapsed - leaving the fossil we see today 180 million years later.
The bulk of marine reptiles found in the YNHM's collection are from the Lias Group of Dorset, the Whitby coast, and north Germany. The name "Lias" comes from the regional affect of the Dorset quarrymen, who were describing the "layers" of stone found in their quarries.
Starting at around 200 Ma,the position of the Lias group overlaps some of the Late Rhaetian/Triassic and the begining of the Jurassic epoch. This was a time of significant faunal upheaval in the seas, marking the end of the dominance of Ichthyosauria and the beginning of their gradual decline. The seas were becoming more competitive, and the rise of other marine reptiles is reflected in the diversity of the collection.
The collection also houses Cretaceous marine reptiles, including British ichthyosaurs and the impressive Moroccan Mosasaurus.