The holotype and only known specimen of the hauffiopterygian leptonectid, Xiphodracon goldencapensis (ROM VP52596) from Golden Cap, between Charmouth and Seatown, Dorset, UK. The skeleton is exposed in ventrolateral view. The skull has been fully prepared free of matrix whereas most of the skeleton is still in matrix. The left (upper) forefin has been prepared so that it is three-dimensionally preserved and projects upwards. Scale bar represents 20 cm.
A three-metre skeleton has been lying dormant in Dorset chalk for 150 million years. Amateur excavators brought it out of obscurity in 2001, but it took more than twenty years for science to finally give it a name. This sea dragon shakes up what we thought we knew about...
