Aust Colossus is an unnamed genus of ichthyosaur that lived in the United Kingdom during the Late Triassic.
Description[]
In 1850, a large Late Triassic bone from Aust Cliff, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom was described alongside four other fragmentary bones. Two are missing (presumed destroyed), and were identified as limbs from stegosaurs and sauropods. However, they were likely mandibular elements of massive ichthyosaurs. Dean Lomax says one of the Aust bones is a surangular from a similar animal, and may be even larger than Ichthyotitan, a giant 25 meter (82 feet) long ichthyosaur previously identified as the Lilstock monster.[1] Scaling off of Icthyotitan, the Aust Colossus may have weighed 175 tons, and 29.3 metres long (96ft 1 inch). [2] A theoretical adult maximum, again by Vividen, would have been 290 tons. What a beast!
References[]
Note: references appear as superscript numbers such as: [1].
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