Tony Gill is one of England's top fossils hunters, and — based in Charmouth, Dorset on England's "Jurassic Coast" — he knows the famous fossil producing beaches as well as anyone.

However, even Tony was surprised one morning around 6 am when, following a week of heavy rain, he found a fall of large nodules on the beach near his fossil shop. Although someone had already been through most of the nodules in search of the well-preserved ammonites that are sometimes found within, Tony took a look around anyway.

What appeared, at first, to be "fossilized wood" later turned out to be a large and spectacular Ichthyosaur, possibly Temnodontosaurus platyodeon.