Tag: ichthyosaur
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Scientists shed light on life and times of ‘Fiona’ the pregnant ichthyosaur
Phys.org has a story about Fiona, the pregnant ichthyosaur. Fiona lived about 131 million years ago during the early Cretaceous Period. Her remains were discovered a few years ago in a glacian ice field in Patagona. Her story was published in a paper in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Fiona is the only fully preserved…
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98-Million-Year-Old Ichthyosaur Fossil Uncovered in New Zealand
Sci News has a piece about the discovery of a new species of Cretaceous ichthyosaur from New Zealand. The specimen, GS15687, is still unnamed as it is too fragmentary. It was found disarticulated in a concretion from the Swale Member of the Split Rock Formation. The concretion dates to the Cenomanian (Ngaterian) about 98 million…
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New Species of Ichthyosaur Identified from Colombian Fossils
SciNews has a post about a new species of ichthyosaur from Columbia. Platypterygius elsuntuoso, an ichthyosaur, lived about 125 million years ago during the early Cretaceous Period. Researchers from the Fundación Colombiana de Geobiología collected the fossil remains of a young adult in 1999. The specimen consists of an almost complete skull, some axial elements…
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Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller review – a marvel of narrative non-fiction
The Guardian has a review of one of my favorite books of the last few years. Lulu Miller’s “Why Fish Don’t Exist” is about a few thing all woven together. It’s first a biography of David Starr Jordan, who was the founding president of Stanford University. He was a prodiguous ichthyologist whose team classified around…
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Paleontologists unearth what may be the largest known marine reptile
Phys.org has a story about the discovery of what might be the largest marine reptile ever found. A father and daughter, Justin and Ruby Reynolds from Braunton, Devon, found pieces of the jawbone of a huge ichthyosaur that lived about 202 million years ago during the Triassic Period. While hunting fossils on the beach at…
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Giant ichthyosaur’s huge tooth points to sea creatures with robust bite
The Guardian has a story about giant ichthyosaurs. A couple ichthyosaurs found in the Swiss Alps are shedding light on the feeding processes of these giant animals. The specimens, which lived during the Triassic Period, have enormous teeth. Large enough to help capture giant squid. A team of researchers have described their research about the…
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PBS Eons: The Sudden Rise of the First Colossal Animal
There's a new episode of PBS Eons. This one is about ichthyosaurs, how and why they arose.
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Smithsonian: Amateur Fossil Hunter Discovers New ‘Sea Dragon’ Species on British Beach
Smithsonian Magazine has a story about the discovery of a new Ichthyosaur in England. The animal, called Thalassodraco etchesi “Sea Dragon”, was discovered on the beach near Dorset, England. It lived about 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic Period. The species name etchesi is for the discoverer Steve Etches. A paper published in…
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Roy Plotnick: Forehead Aliens, Rishathra, and the Ecology of Alien Worlds
Roy Plotnick has another insightful post on Medium. This one is about evolutionary biology. As a Star Trek fan, I appreciate the writers attempt to explain within their universe what were actually constraints produced by the need to use human actors and save on CGI. Personally, I don’t think it was necessary (don’t get me…
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PBS Eons: When Ichthyosaurs Led a Revolution in the Seas
PBS Eons has a video about the rise of the Ichthyosaurs after the “Great Dying” at the end of the Permian. PBS Eons is a great, educational series from PBS on Youtube, with a new episode each week. The marine reptiles Ichthyosaurs arose after The Great Dying, which wiped out at least 90 percent…
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CBC Quirks & Quarks – A new fossil reveals the first bird beak – and it came with teeth as well
CBC’s Quirks & Quarks has a segment about the first known bird beak. It belongs to Ichthyornis a bird that dates to about 80 million years ago, during the Cretaceous Period. The species was first identified in the 1870’s and named by Othniel Charles Marsh, of Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History. The original paper…
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Palaeocast Episode 85: Ichthyosaurs
The Palaeocast podcast has a new episode on Ichthyosaurs. The discussion centers around a new documentary called “Attenborough and the Sea Dragon”. Ichthyosaurs are large marine reptiles that existed for most of the Mesozoic Era. The most familiar forms superficially represent dolphins, but some earlier ichthyosaurs were more eel like. They could attain huge proportions,…
