VERNAL, Utah — A Utah boater helped paleontologists recover one of the best-known specimens of a rare fossil earlier this year. 

Alan Dailey, from Hooper, Utah was boating in the Flaming George Reservoir in Northeastern Utah in May when he found something incredible… and incredibly old.

Dailey encountered a fossil in a 400 pound sandstone block. He contacted state paleontologists about his find, sent photos, and left the specimens behind for experts to recover.

The Hooper man, along with a team of paleontologists from Utah State Parks and other partner organizations, returned to the site. There, he showed them where he first met the fossilized remains of an over 200 million-year-old marine reptile.

Ichthyosaur fossil is rare Utah find

The team excavated the fossil, which consisted of a “fore fin, vertebrae and ribs, from an animal known as an ichthyosaur  (ick-thee-oh-sore, meaning “fish-lizard”),” the Utah Division of Parks and Recreation reported.

Ichthyosaurs were “dolphin-to-whale-sized and swam in the seas of the Mesozoic era from the times of the first dinosaurs” to just before their extinction. The Ichthyosaur found was dolphin-sized with a similar shape, snout, and conical teeth. 

Previous finds of ichthyosaur fossils have been on a much smaller scale, consisting mostly of isolated vertebrae. In a news release, the parks said “Alan Dailey’s find, now at the Utah Field House of Natural History, includes the nearly complete and articulated forefin, plus 10 ribs and 19 articulated vertebrae.”

Dailey’s random encounter and prompt report to paleontologists with the state have now resulted in the recovery of one of the best ichthyosaur fossil specimens known from Utah. 

Read more: 

• Mass fossil site may prove tyrannosaurs lived in packs
• A 12-year-old found a 69 million-year-old dinosaur fossil while hiking with his dad
• Antarctic fossil could have been the biggest flying bird ever, study finds
• Heart of Utah: Archery, Bigfoot, Dinosaurs and Yurts — Utah State Parks becoming crown jewels
• Fossils reveal dinosaur forerunner smaller than a cellphone