Termnodontosaurus platyodon (Conybeare, 1822) ichthyosaur fossil was found in 1811 by Joseph Anning (older brother to
Mary Anning). She would find the rest of this creature in November 1812 (length 17 feet). The skull fossil was illustrated by Professor
Everard Home of the Royal College of Surgeons in the
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1814 (he called it
Proteosaurus). At first it was thought to be a fossil crocodile. The Annings sold it to Henry Hoste Henley for £23. The genus was named by
Richard Lydekker and the species by
William Daniel Conybeare.
The fossil was found on a beach between Charmouth and Church Cliffs Lyme Regis, Dorset, England and dates to the Lower Jurassic Period (203-194 million years ago).
It was on display at the Natural History Museum of London England in August 2016. They acquired it from Bullock's Museum in Piccadilly in 1819 by Charles Konig for £47. I got to see this fossil in person in August 2016.
Learn more at this informative blog called Incertae Sedis:
https://incertaesedisblog.wordpress.com/2020/10/12/goodbye-temnodontosaurus-hello-proteosaurus/
Reference:
Home,
E. (1814). Some account of the fossil remains of an animal more nearly
allied to fishes than any of the other classes of animals. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 104(2), 571-577.
Conybeare, W.D. (1822). Additional notices on the fossil genera Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus. Transactions of the Geological Society of London, Series 2, 1, 103-123.
Nicholson, H.A., & Lydekker, R. (1889). A Manual of Palaeontology for the Use of Students with a General Introduction on the Principles of Palaeontology (3rd ed.). Volume II. William Blackwood and Sons.
