SCIENTISTS have discovered a new species of dinosaur on the Jurassic Coast at Charmouth - a 190 million-year-old ichthyosaur.

Dr Paul Davis, from the Natural History Museum, discovered the fossilised sea monster while leading a dig with the West Sussex Geological Society on the National Trust's Golden Cap Estate.

Now experts are cleaning the amazing find at the museum's palaeontology conservation unit in London before it is studied in greater depth.

They believe it could be a new species of ichthyosaur.

Dr Davis said: "I was walking along the shoreline away from the rest of the group when I spotted a row of vertebra on the flat rock ledges.

"I immediately recognised it as part of the backbone of the ichthyosaur.

"I was amazed to see it there as I knew that only one other ichthyosaur fossil had ever been found in this rock layer.

"We had to wait until the next low tide before we could excavate the fossil so it was a real thrill to finally see what is only the second one from this period of prehistory to be found."

Numerous specimens of the fossil marine reptile have been uncovered over the years, but the Charmouth find was only the second to be uncovered from the lower Pliensbachian stage of the Jurassic period from 195-190 million years ago.

Dr Davis excavated the half-skeleton with a team from the Natural History Museum and the Lyme Regis Museum on November 12 and 13.

Now it is hoped that the specimen will go on display at the museum's Fossil Roadshow in Lyme Regis from April 8-10 next year.

Ichthyosaurs lived between 220 million and 65 million years ago and looked very much like modern-day dolphins, but were marine reptiles. Snakes and lizards are their closest living relatives.

Fossil ichthyosaurs 195 million to 220 million years old are commonly found, particularly along the Jurassic Coast, and several ichthyosaurs that are around 185 million years old have been found on the North Yorkshire coast.

The National Trust gave permission for the Natural History Museum to excavate the ichthyosaur as the museum's team are fully trained in the methods of extraction of vertebrate fossils and followed the West Dorset Collecting Code of Conduct.

The first ichthyosaur discovered from the Lower Pliensbachian period in Dorset was found by Chris Moore in 1995.

It is now at the Natural History Museum and was named leptonectes moorei in 1999 in honour of the finder by Dr Angela Milner of the Natural History Museum and Dr Chris McGowan of the Royal Ontario Museum, in Toronto, Canada.