A COMPLETE skeleton of the largest predator of all time, a Jurassic sea monster that made Tyrannosaurus rex look like a featherweight, has been discovered in Mexico.

The fossilised bones, measuring 65 feet from nose to tail, have been identified as those of Liopleurodon ferox, a fearsome carnivore that terrorised the oceans 150 million years ago.

The marine behemoth, which was featured in the BBC series Walking With Dinosaurs, boasted teeth the size of machetes packed into 10ft jaws powerful enough to bite through granite. It weighed more than 50 tons — seven times larger than T. rex — and hunted the ancestors of modern sharks and aquatic reptiles such as ichthyosaurs. Had the species lived at the same time, it would have been capable of killing a blue whale.

Although the existence of Liopleurodon ferox has been known since the 19th century, through partial fossils, the new specimen, found by German and Mexican palaeontologists, is the first recovered in its entirety. Analysis of the skeleton, which is nicknamed the “Monster of Aramberri” after the site in northeastern Mexico where it was found, is expected to reveal details of the Liopleurodon’s last meal and the cause of its death. The skull, as large as a car, has a huge hole in it, possibly made by a victim that fought back.

The bones were discovered mingled with those of smaller ichthyosaurs, which the Liopleurodon had probably eaten, together with huge chunks of rock which it would have swallowed along with its prey as an aid to digestion or as ballast.

Eberhard Frey, of the Natural History Museum in Karlsruhe, who led the research team, said the specimen would allow them to reconstruct the most accurate model yet of the creature.

“This is the world’s first complete example of the species and therefore it is a sensational find,” he said. “No other living creature in the sea could fight it successfully. They swallowed prey whole.

“This is the largest specimen of any dinosaur ever found. Now we have this one unique chance to reconstruct this creature, to show it how it was. Now we can learn so much about the way these behemoths of the deep lived.”

Details of the discovery, made in October, are reported in the German magazine Der Spiegel. The bones are to be shipped to Germany for reconstruction in Karlsruhe.

Liopleurodon ferox, which was first identified by the French palaeontologist H.E. Sauvage in 1873, belongs to an order of prehistoric marine reptiles known as the plesiosaurs, cousins of the dinosaurs that thrived in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, between 208 and 65 million years ago.

The creatures, whose collective name means “near lizards”, were carnivores with four powerful flippers. Liopleurodon, which means “smooth-sided tooth”, is one of a sub-group called the pliosauroids, which had large heads, strong jaws, short necks, and resembled whales.

Incomplete Liopleurodon fossils have been found across Europe, including several in Britain, and scientists believe the species was abundant throughout the world. Although the Aramberri fossils clearly belong to a large plesiosaur, the precise identification as Liopleurodon has yet to be confirmed.

Estimates prepared by the BBC for Walking With Dinosaurs suggest that the largest of the creatures would have been even bigger than the Monster of Aramberri, at up to 80 feet long and 150 tons, although most palaeontologists are more conservative, particularly about its weight. The largest known land predator, Giganotosaurus, grew to up to 45 feet long and 8 tons in weight, while T. Rex reached 40 feet and 5 to 7 tons. The blue whale, the largest creature ever known, can reach 95 feet and 158 tons.

Liopleurodon’s teeth each measured up to 10in and were so sharp that several members of Dr Frey’s team suffered cuts while the Monster of Aramberri was painstakingly dug from the soil. Bite marks consistent with the creature’s jaws have been found in the flipper bones of other plesiosaurs, such as Ophthalmosaurus and Cryptoclidius, indicating a few of the species on which it would have preyed.

Research using previously-discovered skulls has shown that it would have located its prey using a bizarre set of “stereo nostrils” which worked together to detect the direction of movement and smells in the water. As it swam with its mouth open, water would flow upward through scoop-shaped holes in the roof of its mouth, and out through its nostrils.

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