• Extinct swordfish-shaped marine reptile

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Mon Nov 29 21:30:32 2021
    Extinct swordfish-shaped marine reptile discovered

    Date:
    November 29, 2021
    Source:
    McGill University
    Summary:
    Researchers have discovered a new marine reptile. The specimen,
    a stunningly preserved meter-long skull, is one of the last
    surviving ichthyosaurs -- ancient animals that look eerily like
    living swordfish.



    FULL STORY ==========================================================================
    A team of international researchers from Canada, Colombia, and Germany
    has discovered a new marine reptile. The specimen, a stunningly preserved metre- long skull, is one of the last surviving ichthyosaurs -- ancient
    animals that look eerily like living swordfish.


    ========================================================================== "This animal evolved a unique dentition that allowed it to eat large
    prey," says Hans Larsson, Director of the Redpath Museum at McGill
    University.

    "Whereas other ichthyosaurs had small, equally sized teeth for feeding on
    small prey, this new species modified its tooth sizes and spacing to build
    an arsenal of teeth for dispatching large prey, like big fishes and other marine reptiles." "We decided to name itKyhytysuka which translates to
    'the one that cuts with something sharp' in an indigenous language from
    the region in central Colombia where the fossil was found, to honour the ancient Muisca culture that existed there for millennia," says Dirley
    Cortes, a graduate student under the supervision of Hans Larsson and
    Carlos Jaramillo of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

    The big picture of ichthyosaur evolution is clarified with this
    new species, the researchers say. "We compared this animal to other
    Jurassic and Cretaceous ichthyosaurs and were able to define a new
    type of ichthyosaurs," says Erin Maxwell of the State Natural History
    Museum of Stuttgart (a former graduate student of Hans Larsson's lab at McGill). "This shakes up the evolutionary tree of ichthyosaurs and lets
    us test new ideas of how they evolved." According to the researchers,
    this species comes from an important transitional time during the
    Early Cretaceous period. At this time, the Earth was coming out of a
    relatively cool period, had rising sea levels, and the supercontinent
    Pangea was splitting into northern and southern landmasses. There was also
    a global extinction event at the end of the Jurassic that changed marine
    and terrestrial ecosystems. "Many classic Jurassic marine ecosystems
    of deep-water feeding ichthyosaurs, short-necked plesiosaurs, and marine-adapted crocodiles were succeeded by new lineages of long-necked plesiosaurs, sea turtles, large marine lizards called mosasaurs, and
    now this monster ichthyosaur" says Dirley Cortes.

    "We are discovering many new species in the rocks this new ichthyosaur
    comes from. We are testing the idea that this region and time in Colombia
    was an ancient biodiversity hotspot and are using the fossils to better understand the evolution of marine ecosystems during this transitional
    time," she adds. As next steps the researchers are continuing to explore
    the wealth of new fossils housed in the Centro de Investigaciones Paleontolo'gicas of Villa de Leyva in Colombia. "This is where I
    grew up," says Cortes "and it is so rewarding to get to do research
    here too." Kyhytysuka video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5URorvooZCQ ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by McGill_University. Note: Content
    may be edited for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. Dirley Corte's, Erin E. Maxwell, Hans C. E. Larsson. Re-appearance
    of
    hypercarnivore ichthyosaurs in the Cretaceous with differentiated
    dentition: revision of `Platypterygius' sachicarum (Reptilia:
    Ichthyosauria, Ophthalmosauridae) from Colombia. Journal of
    Systematic Palaeontology, 2021; 1 DOI: 10.1080/14772019.2021.1989507 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/11/211129155057.htm

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