My friend Toby Lowther wrote to me back in December to ask this question: It’s strange, isn’t it? The last I knew, Shonisaurus was the largest ichthyosaur, at about 20 m and 50 tonnes, and this is considerably bigger than any plesiosaur or mosasaur I know of. It’s up the sperm-whale size category, but not even close to the bigger baleen whales. Why not?

Check this baby out: I know, I know what you’re thinking. “Enough with the vulgar overexposed skull of this beast, Taylor”, you cry: “Show us its zygapophyses!” But of course. This is from the anterior part of the tail, in right lateral view: the vertebrae that you see here are the third to seventh of those that carry chevrons.