From left, Dean Lomax, Ruby Reynolds, Justin Reynolds, and Paul de la Salle with some of the fossils from the newly identified species of ichthyosaur (Credit: Dr. Dean Lomax/ CC-BY-SA-4.0)

Fossils found by a father-daughter team has led to the discovery of a new, massive species of ichthyosaur. The marine reptiles dominated the seas during the Triassic and Jurassic periods (251 to 145 million years ago). Often referred to as "fish-lizards," they shared physical similarities with dolphins and whales but were, in fact, members of the reptile family.