When
the grey rocks you come to next were formed, things were looking
up.
The land had coninued to
move north and would have been somewhere between Sudan and the south
of France.
Sea levels had risen, land was flooded and the salt levels in the
water were just right.
This was the beginning of the Jurassic
period and dinosaurs were now dominating the earth.
The area was now a truly marine environment where
sea creatures could thrive so there are abundant fossils to be found
here.
The most common is the ammonite,
which is related to the modern squid but which became extinct at
the same time as the dinosaurs.
But this time, and place, was also have been home
to marine reptiles like the plesiosaur. The plesiosaur would look
familiar because it's usually the model for the supposed Loch Ness
monster.
Another marine reptile living in these waters
was the ichthyosaur,
which looked like the modern dolphin but which was a reptile rather
than a mammal.
This is how palaeontologist
Ben Kear described, for BBC news online, how an ichthyosaur hunts
its prey - from the perspective of a small fish:
"Unfortunately you have been spotted by the
keen eyes of an ichthyosaur.
"This beast is a 'pursuit predator' meaning
that, like a dolphin or tuna, it chases down its prey.
"Once it gets within striking distance, its
long, thin snout swings sideways through the water and its powerful
jaws snap shut.
"It effectively crushes and restrains (rather
than directly impaling) you on its long rows of over 200 densely-packed,
3cm-high teeth.
"The ichthyosaur then gives you a series of
good shakes - its teeth dig deep and begin to tear your flesh apart.
"This breaks your body up into several bite-sized
chunks that the ichthyosaur swallows whole in a few quick bites.
"The whole process has taken no more than
minute."
A fairly intact skeleton of an ichthyosaur was
found some years ago, here in these rocks at Larne.
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