Overview

• Researchers formally describe Xiphodracon goldencapensis in Papers in Palaeontology, based on a near-complete specimen found at Golden Cap in 2001 and now housed at the Royal Ontario Museum.
• Dated to the Pliensbachian stage of the Early Jurassic, the find helps place a major ichthyosaur faunal turnover earlier than previously thought.
• The three-dimensionally preserved fossil measures about 3 meters and shows an elongated, sword-like snout, enormous eye sockets, and a unique prong-like lacrimal bone not seen in other ichthyosaurs.
• Pathologies include malformed limb bones and teeth consistent with injury or disease, and bite damage to the skull points to a fatal attack by a larger marine predator, likely another ichthyosaur.
• A dark mass may represent stomach contents suggesting fish and possibly squid, the ROM plans to display the specimen, and a second related find is reported on exhibit at the Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre.