Eye-lizard
This bone is a humerus, the main bone that supported the upper front paddle. Its shape is typical for ichthyosaurs that lived at a particular time in the Upper Jurassic period.
This fossil is a holotype and as such defines the species Ophthalmosaurus pleydelli, named after J C Mansel-Pleydell who collected and donated a considerable amount of Dorset County Museum’s fossil collection. Opthalmosaurs are a variety of ichthyosaur with massive eyes. They first appeared in the Upper Jurassic Oxford and Kimmeridge Clay rocks which both formed in muddy seas where presumably visibility was poor.
