Dr Lomax, a palaeontologist with the University of Bristol and University of Manchester, said: “At the Yorkshire coastline or the Jurassic coastline, often you just have partial skeletons or complete skeletons that are eroding out.

“You’ve got cliff faces erosion. You’ve got the sea floor that’s been eroded away. And so if you’ve had a beautiful skeleton there once, in many cases, those bones have become scattered, and you’ll have isolated bits and pieces and maybe 50 different collectors will have parts of the skeleton.

“If you have an inland location, like the Rutland sea dragon, there’s always a good chance you’ll have something complete.”

Finds in Leicestershire and Rutland are not a recent phenomenon.

Dr Lomax said documented Jurassic finds from quarries in the area go back about 200 years.

But the recent finds, such as the two ichthyosaur specimens and the first-ever Bajocian pterosaur identified in Ketton, have helped experts to re-evaluate the region.