Researchers have just made a major discovery. They found a 244 million year old fossil. This fossil belongs to a huge and terrifying underwater predator who reigned during the Triassic period.
The largest animals to ever live were underwater. The most imposing is currently the southern blue whale with its 30 meters long and 170 tonnes. Modern cetaceans have grown in size over tens of millions of years.
A new study published in the journal Science detailed the discovery of a huge underwater animal, an ichthyosaur, which evolved faster than cetaceans. Researchers estimate that this animal was a formidable predator of the Triassic period that existed 8 million years after the first ichthyosaurs. It is Cymbospondylus youngorum.
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The skull of the Triassic underwater predator was 2 meters long
The Triassic is a period preceding the Jurassic which extended from -251 to -201.6 million years ago. Ichthyosaurs were marine reptiles that appeared before dinosaurs. Researchers have discovered 244 million year old ichthyosaur fossil. This shows a very rapid evolution in size. This creature is a new species from Cymbospondylus, a genus of diapside marine reptile.
According to the researchers, the underwater predator was ” the largest known tetrapod of its time, on land or in the sea, and the first in a series of ocean giants ». His skull alone was two meters long. The researchers also hypothesized about its rapid and impressive growth. They believe that the tetrapod primarily fed on ammonites which were abundant during this time. ” Ichthyosaurs appear to have benefited from the abundance of pelagic conodonts and ammonites after recovery from the Late Permian mass extinction “, They explained.
Below is a user-created reproduction of the underwater predator Twitter “@PrimevalArtist”. Measuring over 17 meters in length, he was as big as a sperm whale, making it the largest animal ever discovered at this time.
Dr Jorge Velez who is the Associate Curator of Marine Mammals at the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History concluded that “ this discovery and the results of our study highlight how different groups of marine tetrapods developed body sizes of epic proportions under somewhat similar circumstances, but at surprisingly different rates ».
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Source : BGR