Ichthyosaurs were a successful group of marine reptiles that prospered during the age of dinosaurs, some reaching up to around 70 feet (21 meters) long - exceeded in size in the history of Earth's oceans only by the largest of the whales. But their origins have been a bit mysterious. Fossils dating to about 250 million years ago unearthed in a harsh and remote locale - Norway's Arctic island of Spitsbergen - are now providing surprising insight into the rise of ichthyosaurs. Researchers said they found remains of the earliest-known ichthyosaur, which lived approximately 2 million years after Earth's worst mass extinction that ended the Permian Period, wiping out roughly 90% of the planet's species amid massive Siberian volcanism. The 11 tail vertebrae discovered indicate that the an...
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Geologists at Lund University in Sweden have mapped 300 years of research on the prehistoric marine reptiles known as ichthyosaurs. Using a uniquely well-preserved fossil, the team has also created the scientifically most up-to-date reconstruction of an ichthyosaur currently available. Historical ichthyosaur reconstructions made during the 19th and early 20th centuries. A. Duria Antiquior (1830) by Henry De la Beche. B. “The Ichthyosaur and the Plesiosaur (period of the Lias)” in Earth before the Deluge (1863) by Louis Figuier. C. Photograph of a Tremnodontosaurus model in Crystal Palace Park made by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins. D. “Mosasaur and Ichthyosaurs” in Die Wunder der Urwelt (1912) by Heinrich Harder. E. Painting of a pod of ichthyosaurs by Heinrich Harder as part of a collect...
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