Patient Fellow Pieces Together Ichthyosaur Skull

["Richard W. Travsky" <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/dinosaurs/8022622/Dinosaur-head-rebuilt-after-fossil-jigsaw-puzzle.html

Enthusiast Mike Harrison, 47, spent the last two years searching for parts 
of the skull belonging to Ichthyosaur, dubbed the 'King' of Jurassic seas.

The shop worker discovered 21 shards of bone after a landslide along the 
Jurassic Coast in Lyme Regis, Dorset, in May 2008.

Now after two years, he has completed piecing together the skull - 
measuring 5ft long and weighing 25 stone - of the marine reptile.

Mr Harrison, from Sidmouth, Devon, said he has spent much of his spare 
time searching for the ancient remains and is storing the skull on his 
kitchen table.

He said: ''Within a week or two of the landslide in May 2008 I found the 
first piece of the skull.

''From then on it was a race to find the rest of it which I did after six 
months hard work. There were 21 pieces which were quite large, around 18 
inches by two feet.

''Some of the teeth have broken off but the roots are still there. So this 
may suggest that the dinosaur died of old age or that it couldn't feed 
itself. They would have had around 150 teeth.

''I've been storing the pieces in a spare room, but now it's on the 
kitchen table so it's been TV dinners for a while.
...