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This is so cool, its only about 10 miles down the road from us! My daughters school is great at jumping on these things when they happen, I bet the Sea Dragon

This is so cool, its only about 10 miles down the road from us! My daughters school is great at jumping on these things when they happen, I bet the Sea Dragon will be the talk of the playground today. I'm amazed that these things are kept to quiet until they make a big public splash, absolutely no chat/rumours about this locally despite it being found 11 months ago. Rutland (the UKs smallest county) is doing quite well for discoveries right now, last year a massive Roman mosaic floor was uncovered in a field [0] and a shackled Human Roman skeleton was also found[1]. 0: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/nov/25/archaeologists-examine-roman-villa-discovered-beneath-rutland-farmers-field https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/nov/25/archaeologis... 1: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jun/07/shackled-skeleton-identified-rare-evidence-roman-britain https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jun/07/shackled-ske...

sandworm101 5y ago
The last line of the bbc article talks of a tv show. I would hate to think that this article was held until that show was ready to air. The BBC is meant to be above such commercial shenanigans.
- samwillis 5y ago
  I suspect some of it is about security, keeping it secret until they have it securely out the ground. Although that must have been completed months ago.
  - Someone 5y ago
    “Late summer 2021” according to https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59915689 https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59915689, so months ago, but not much more. They might not have known whether it was complete at the time they lifted it out, either.
- robga 5y ago
  A Guardian article says the dig was in August and September. The first 3 episodes in the BBC's brilliant Digging for Britain that aired last week look like they were shot in a similar timeframe. This fossil will covered in tomorrow's show. I think what we'd find is that those associated with the discovery timed their announement with the show airing rather than the BBC dictating it.
- gnufx 5y ago
  I wasn't sure https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/jurassic-giant--the-largest-marine-reptile-skeleton-ever-unearthed-in-britain/ https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/jurassic-giant--t... was interesting enough to post, but it mentions "an exclusive" for Digging for Britain.
Bayart 5y ago
>I'm amazed that these things are kept to quiet until they make a big public splash, absolutely no chat/rumours about this locally despite it being found 11 months ago. Sadly theft is a big problem everywhere, be it antiquities or fossils. Far less so in countries like Britain because it's wealthy and dense enough that it's not rampant like in some other countries (Mongolia comes to mind for fossils), but I'm certain the researchers would still rather take precautions, if only to keep away reckless tourists.
- sandworm101 5y ago
  Is it theft? Who owns such a fossil can be complicated. Sometimes it might belong to whoever pulls it out of the ground first, depending on where it is. In somewhere as ancient as Britain, you will need legal advice before deciding who if anyone owns such an object.
  - Bayart 5y ago
    Britain happens to be quite special on that subject and has a positive approach to things like detectorism. But I doubt it has anything to do with how « ancient » it is (it's not anymore ancient than anywhere in Eurasia), rather it's a property of a quirky legal system. Try to pull anything like that out of the ground in my country (France), and you're both unequivocally a thief and a vandal.
    - sandworm101 5y ago
      Ancient as in thousands of years of laws, layers that you have to wade through to figure out who owns what underground.
      - pmyteh 5y ago
        It's not that complicated in the UK. In the vast majority of cases it's either Treasure[0] (which has a special procedure: report it to the local coroner to deal with) or it belongs to the landowner (unless you have an agreement with them otherwise). There are some corner cases, but you're not going to accidentally find an oil deposit so most of them just won't apply. Detectorists will normally arrange a 50/50 split with the landowner, I understand. [0]: https://finds.org.uk/treasure/advice/summary https://finds.org.uk/treasure/advice/summary
Accacin 5y ago
I'm going to sound pretty dumb right now, but I'm from Leicestershire and have been to Rutland water many times when I was younger, but I never knew that Rutland was a county.
- Doctor_Fegg 5y ago
  It wasn't. Rutland was a county up until the 70s. It was then absorbed into Leicestershire because Rutland is, by rights, too small to be at all economic to be run as a county. Despite this, in 1994, it became a county once again (as a "unitary authority") because local identification with Rutland is so strong. By and large Rutlanders - of whom I was once one! - are happy to pay an extra £10 or £20 on their council tax just to have their own council.
  - samwillis 5y ago
    Getting slightly off topic, but one of my pet peeves about Stamford (where I live) is that we are not part of Rutland. Stamford is part of Lincolnshire but stuck way down the bottom on its own, surrounded on three sides by other counties, one being Rutland. We are really neglected by the county and district councils. Take a look at a map[0] (if you haven't seen before) of the county boundary around our little town, it is so stupid. It would make so much more sense for us and a few of the surrounding villages to be annexed too Rutland, it would increase the GDP of the county helping it to become more sustainable. During the Covid lockdowns there was only one road out of town you could legally drive down. Fortunately it looks like the beginning of this may be happing, the proposed parliamentary boundary redrawing moves us to share an MP with Oakham. First of many steps. [0]: https://wikishire.co.uk/map/#/centre=52.642,-0.454/zoom=11 https://wikishire.co.uk/map/#/centre=52.642,-0.454/zoom=11
  - iso1210 5y ago
    North West Leicstershire council tax for band D is £1,886.88 including police, fire, and the two-layer system (plus parish/town precept) Rutland is £2,143.75 (plus parish/town) That's £20 a month extra.

sandworm101 5y ago

The last line of the bbc article talks of a tv show. I would hate to think that this article was held until that show was ready to air. The BBC is meant to be above such commercial shenanigans.

samwillis 5y ago
I suspect some of it is about security, keeping it secret until they have it securely out the ground. Although that must have been completed months ago.
- Someone 5y ago
  “Late summer 2021” according to https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59915689 https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59915689, so months ago, but not much more. They might not have known whether it was complete at the time they lifted it out, either.
robga 5y ago
A Guardian article says the dig was in August and September. The first 3 episodes in the BBC's brilliant Digging for Britain that aired last week look like they were shot in a similar timeframe. This fossil will covered in tomorrow's show. I think what we'd find is that those associated with the discovery timed their announement with the show airing rather than the BBC dictating it.
gnufx 5y ago
I wasn't sure https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/jurassic-giant--the-largest-marine-reptile-skeleton-ever-unearthed-in-britain/ https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/jurassic-giant--t... was interesting enough to post, but it mentions "an exclusive" for Digging for Britain.

Bayart 5y ago

>I'm amazed that these things are kept to quiet until they make a big public splash, absolutely no chat/rumours about this locally despite it being found 11 months ago. Sadly theft is a big problem everywhere, be it antiquities or fossils. Far less so in countries like Britain because it's wealthy and dense enough that it's not rampant like in some other countries (Mongolia comes to mind for fossils), but I'm certain the researchers would still rather take precautions, if only to keep away reckless tourists.

sandworm101 5y ago
Is it theft? Who owns such a fossil can be complicated. Sometimes it might belong to whoever pulls it out of the ground first, depending on where it is. In somewhere as ancient as Britain, you will need legal advice before deciding who if anyone owns such an object.
- Bayart 5y ago
  Britain happens to be quite special on that subject and has a positive approach to things like detectorism. But I doubt it has anything to do with how « ancient » it is (it's not anymore ancient than anywhere in Eurasia), rather it's a property of a quirky legal system. Try to pull anything like that out of the ground in my country (France), and you're both unequivocally a thief and a vandal.
  - sandworm101 5y ago
    Ancient as in thousands of years of laws, layers that you have to wade through to figure out who owns what underground.
    - pmyteh 5y ago
      It's not that complicated in the UK. In the vast majority of cases it's either Treasure[0] (which has a special procedure: report it to the local coroner to deal with) or it belongs to the landowner (unless you have an agreement with them otherwise). There are some corner cases, but you're not going to accidentally find an oil deposit so most of them just won't apply. Detectorists will normally arrange a 50/50 split with the landowner, I understand. [0]: https://finds.org.uk/treasure/advice/summary https://finds.org.uk/treasure/advice/summary

Accacin 5y ago

I'm going to sound pretty dumb right now, but I'm from Leicestershire and have been to Rutland water many times when I was younger, but I never knew that Rutland was a county.

Doctor_Fegg 5y ago
It wasn't. Rutland was a county up until the 70s. It was then absorbed into Leicestershire because Rutland is, by rights, too small to be at all economic to be run as a county. Despite this, in 1994, it became a county once again (as a "unitary authority") because local identification with Rutland is so strong. By and large Rutlanders - of whom I was once one! - are happy to pay an extra £10 or £20 on their council tax just to have their own council.
- samwillis 5y ago
  Getting slightly off topic, but one of my pet peeves about Stamford (where I live) is that we are not part of Rutland. Stamford is part of Lincolnshire but stuck way down the bottom on its own, surrounded on three sides by other counties, one being Rutland. We are really neglected by the county and district councils. Take a look at a map[0] (if you haven't seen before) of the county boundary around our little town, it is so stupid. It would make so much more sense for us and a few of the surrounding villages to be annexed too Rutland, it would increase the GDP of the county helping it to become more sustainable. During the Covid lockdowns there was only one road out of town you could legally drive down. Fortunately it looks like the beginning of this may be happing, the proposed parliamentary boundary redrawing moves us to share an MP with Oakham. First of many steps. [0]: https://wikishire.co.uk/map/#/centre=52.642,-0.454/zoom=11 https://wikishire.co.uk/map/#/centre=52.642,-0.454/zoom=11
- iso1210 5y ago
  North West Leicstershire council tax for band D is £1,886.88 including police, fire, and the two-layer system (plus parish/town precept) Rutland is £2,143.75 (plus parish/town) That's £20 a month extra.