The haul of remarkably well-preserved fossils was unearthed from behind a cowshed at Court Farm, which lies on the outskirts of Gloucestershire, by a team led by the married palaeontologist pair Neville and Sally Hollingworth. According to the researchers, their work was undertaken under the watchful eye of the farm’s English longhorn, a breed of beef cattle known for their long, curved horns. Mrs Hollingworth — who is a fossil preparator — told Live Science: “It was a bit unnerving digging when you’re being watched by a herd of longhorn.”
In total, the palaeontologists recovered more than 180 individual fossil specimens from the excavation — including the petrified remains of fish, insects, squid-like belemnites, ammonites, bivalves, snails, squids and large marine reptiles known as ichthyosaurs.
The most distinctive find, however, was the head of a Pachycormus, a member of an extinct genus of ray-finned fish.
The specimen, which was found embedded in a hard limestone nodule found embedded within the clay bedrock, was exceptionally well-preserved, retaining even soft tissues that don’t normally fossilise like its eyes and scales.
The pose of the Pachycormus, the team said, was incomparable among fossil specimens — but not entirely unfamiliar.
Dr Hollingworth said: “The closest analogue we could think of was Big Mouth Billy Bass.
“The eyeball and socket were well preserved. Usually, with fossils, they’re lying flat.
“But in this case, it was preserved in more than one dimension, and it looks like the fish is leaping out of the rock.”
Mrs Hollingsworth added: “I’ve never seen anything like it before. You could see the scales, skin, spine — even its eyeball is still there.”
Following the remarkable find, the Hollingsworths shared the Pachycormus specimen with ThinkSee3D, a firm which creates digital models of fossils.
This reconstruction will allow researchers all around the world to study the unusual fossil more closely — without necessarily having access to the physical specimen.
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With their initial study complete, the researchers are now planning to continue analysing the specimens they have recovered.
Dr Lomax said: “It’s important that we can compare these fossils with other Toarcian age [183–174 million year old] fossil sites, not only in the UK but also across Europe and potentially sites in America.”
One such site is the Strawberry Bank Lagerstätte in Ilminster, Somerset, which has preserved traces of a similar early Toarcian marine ecosystem.
The team are working towards publishing their findings — and, in the meantime, a selection of the fossils are to be exhibited at the Museum in the Park in Stroud.