A pair of Belgian tourists have discovered the remains of a 174-million-year-old giant ichthyosaur while strolling on a beach in Dorset.
Michel Plissart and Carine Christens were taking a walk along the beach near Bridport when they stumbled over a shelf of rock sticking out of the sand.
On closer inspection, the holidaying couple discovered a few pieces of bone protruding from the exposed sandstone bed.
Incredibly, they had not only found a rare ichthyosaur fossil, but the youngest fossil of its kind ever uncovered in the UK.
Ichthyosaurs are large, dolphin-like air-breathing reptiles that ruled the seas from around 250 million years ago.
Scientists from the University of Bristol have dated the bones of this giant 'sea dragon' and estimate that it lived 174 million years ago.
That meant this animal was roaming Britain's coast nine million years after the catastrophic event that scientists believed wiped out the species.
Michel Plissart (left) and Carine Christens (right), a pair of Belgian tourists, discovered the remains of a 174-million-year-old giant ichthyosaur while strolling on a beach in Dorset
Phil Davidson, palaeontologist at the Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre, told the Daily Mail that he was in the office when Mr Plissart and Ms Christens arrived with news of their surprising discovery three years ago.
'They knew we wouldn't believe that they had found something really special, so they brought one of the loose bits of bone along with them,' Mr Davidson says.
'I was a bit shocked and amazed, because you wouldn't expect to find something like that.'
Mr Davidson's surprise came from the fact that the area where the tourists had been walking was not well known for ichthyosaur remains.
That stretch of coast is made up of rocks known as the Bridport Sands Formation, which are up to 20 million years younger than those where ichthyosaurs are usually found.
But when the local palaeontologists arrived on the scene, they discovered that Mr Plissart and Ms Christens had been completely correct.
They found the nearly complete remains of an enormous prehistoric predator embedded in a slab of sandstone.
Ichthyosaurs emerged in the Triassic period, descending from reptiles whose ancestors returned to the seas after living on land for millions of years.
The tourists accidentally stumbled upon the remains of a giant ichthyosaur (artist's impression), a dolphin-like predator that emerged around 250 million years ago
Once the fossils had been uncovered, it was a 'race against time' to remove them from the beach before the winter weather scattered the bones
An incredibly diverse group of predators, they range from some of the largest animals on Earth to small, dolphin-like creatures that zipped through shallow coastal waters.
They are found all over the world, but in the UK their fossils are mainly located along the Jurassic Coast, a 95-mile stretch of coast in southern England.
One of the most striking things that these fossils reveal is just how different the UK would have been when the ichthyosaurs still ruled the seas.
'It would have been quite a lot different than today,' says Mr Davidson.
'Sea levels would have been a lot higher, and we were a lot closer to the equator, so a bit more of a tropical island archipelago, similar to how Barbados is today.'
However, the UK's current climate meant there wasn't any time for celebration after this new fossil was discovered.
Having been found in the depths of winter, unpredictable weather and powerful storms meant the rare remains could be swept away if the team didn't act fast.
Mr Davidson says: 'It's always a kind of race against time. The natural elements reveal these fossils, but they also destroy them as well.'
Palaeontologists collected the fossils and sent them to the University of Bristol for scientific analysis. They will go on display at the nearby Bridport Museum this weekend
'It'll get smashed up and spread along the beach, and all those lovely bones will be turned into pebbles and sand.'
While it took some serious heavy lifting, the team were eventually able to remove the slabs of stone and sledge them down the beach and into safety.
After being cleaned of excess stone by local fossil preparators and collectors, the remains were sent off to the experts at Bristol University, where they have been scientifically studied.
The ichthyosaur fossil will go on display at the nearby Bridport Museum this weekend, which Mr Davidson sees as a fitting end for this spectacular story of discovery.
He says: 'This is almost the best-case scenario really, because you've got a specimen that's been prepared by world-class professionals, and then, in collaboration with Bristol University, it's been scientifically described so the world can know about it.
'Now it's been donated to a local museum where it can go on to inspire other people, and it all starts with the fossils being saved from the sea.'