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A beach walker has unearthed a 7ft (2.1 metre) fossil of a fierce marine monster in south Wales.

Jonathan Bow, 34, stumbled upon the complete 200 million-year-old ichthyosaur remains while walking along the Penarth shoreline.

The computer programmer and his brother spent a full day digging up the 132lb (60kg) fossil, which Mr Bow described as 'a whopper'.

Jonathan Bow, 34, found the complete 200 million-year-old ichthyosaur remains while walking in Penarth area

Now Mr Bow has replaced the coffee table in his home with the fossil of the carnivorous icthyosaur to show off his find to friends and family.

Ichthyosaurs, also known as fish lizards - despite being neither fish nor lizards - were reptiles that swam the world's oceans in the Jurassic period while dinosaurs walked the land. 

They died out around 25 million years before the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs and were replaced by plesiosaurs, a long neck marine reptile

'It was a particularly low tide and we were just leaving after failing to find anything interesting,' said Mr Bow.

Now Mr Bow has replaced the coffee table in his home with the fossil of the carnivorous icthyosaur to show off his find to friends and family. Pictured is Mr Bow holiding the marine reptiles head

The computer programmer and his brother spent a full day digging up the 132lb (60kg) fossil, which Mr Bow (left) described as 'a whopper

The fish lizards died out around 25 million years before the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs and were replaced by plesiosaurs, a long neck marine reptile. Pictured is an artists's impression

Ichthyosaurs, also known as fish lizards, were reptiles that swam the world's oceans in the Jurassic period while dinosaurs walked the land

'Then something caught the corner of my eye and when I investigated I couldn't believe it - it was an incredible find.'

While complete remains of ichthyosaurs have been discovered in Dorset and elsewhere, this is the first time a full specimen of the lizard has been found in Wales.

The stone around the skeleton had to be carefully removed before Mr Bow alerted experts at National Museum Wales.

The fossil hunter still has about 100 hours of patient work on the specimen in his workshop at his home in Porthcawl before it is ready to be displayed.

'Something this large and complete is a once in a lifetime find. It was quite a whopper.' He said.

'Anyone walking their dog on the beach could have found it - it just fell to me to be lucky.'

Mr Bow has also discovered part of a jaw of a plesiosaur since he started his hobby several years ago.

National Museum Wales palaeontologist Cindy Howells said: 'The ichthyosaur is potentially a very, very important find because it is so complete.'

While complete remains of ichthyosaurs have been discovered in Dorset and elsewhere, this is the first time a full specimen of the lizard has been found in Wales. Pictured is one of the fish lizard's flippers

The stone around the skeleton had to be carefully removed before Mr Bow alerted experts about the find

The incredible fossil was found on a beach in Penarth - a town in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales