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An 82-foot-long giant lizard fish discovered on a British beach may be the largest marine reptile ever discovered
Scientists have unearthed the remains of a 200-million-year-old giant sea monster, the largest marine reptile ever discovered.
The newly discovered creatures are members of a group called ichthyosaurs, which were one of the dominant marine predators during the Mesozoic Era (251.9 to 66 million years ago). The newly described species lived during the late Triassic period (251.9 million to 201.4 million years ago).
Ichthyosaurs reached gigantic sizes as early as the Mesozoic Era, but it was not until the late Triassic that the largest species appeared.
The Mesozoic Era is known as the age of dinosaurs, but ichthyosaurs themselves were not dinosaurs. Instead, they evolved from another group of reptiles. Their evolutionary path closely resembles that of whales, which evolved from land mammals that later returned to the sea. And like whales, they breathed air and gave birth to live calves.
The newly discovered ichthyosaur species was excavated piece by piece at Blue Anchor, Somerset, England, between 2020 and 2022. The first chunk of fossil was discovered atop a rock on the beach, meaning a passerby discovered it and left it there for others to examine, the researchers explained in their paper. The researchers published their findings April 17 in the journal PLOS One.
The reptile's remains consist of a series of 12 pieces of the surangular bone found in the upper part of the lower jaw. Researchers estimate the bone was 2 meters (6.5 feet) long and the living animal was about 25 meters long.
Researchers named the sea monster Ichthyotitan severnensis, meaning giant lizard fish of the River Severn, after the Severn estuary where it was discovered. The team believes this is not only a new species, but an entirely new genus of ichthyosaurs. More than 100 species are already known.
A huge pair of Ichthyotitan severnensis swimming. (Image credit: Gabriel Ugueto, CC-BY 4.0)
A number of rib fragments and coprolite, or fossilized excrement, were also found in the area, but these have not been confirmed to belong to the same animal.
The sediment in which this specimen was found contains rocks that indicate an earthquake and tsunami occurred at that time. Researchers.
A similar specimen was discovered at Lilstock, Somerset in 2016 and described in 2018. Both specimens were found at known sites in the Westbury Mudstone Formation, within 10 km of each other. This ichthyosaur is estimated to have been up to 26 meters long, although the authors of the latest study believe it was slightly smaller.
The previous contender for the largest marine reptile was Shonisaurus sikanniensis, another ichthyosaur that could reach up to 21 meters in length. S. sikanniensis appeared 13 million years earlier than I. severnensis and was discovered in British Columbia, so it is unlikely that this discovery is another specimen of a previously known species.
A similar giant ichthyosaur called Himalayasaurus tibetensis could reach 15 meters in length and was discovered in Tibet and described in 1972. These ichthyosaurs date from the same period and are unlikely to be the same species as the new discovery. Which one.
Researchers claim that I. severnensis is likely one of the last giant ichthyosaurs. Ichthyosaurs lasted from the late Cretaceous period (100.5 to 66 million years ago) until the Cenomanian period (100.5 to 93.9 million years ago). They were eventually replaced by plesiosaurs, long-necked marine reptiles that became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous along with all non-avian dinosaurs.
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