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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