#ichtyosaurs

Today's marine reptile artwork depicts a mother Nannopterygius giving birth. This is one of about 60 artworks I produced for Prof Michael J. Benton's book, DINOSAUR BEHAVIOR (published by Princeton University Press).

#010: Ichtyosour

Ichtyosours secrete sweet juice from their skin to attract potential prey, and if a bigger creature bothers them, they secrete sour juice instead! While their sweet juice is normally reserved for their prey, if closely bonded to other creatures, they will share it with them! Refreshening!they're top predators in the mangroves they live in! No one knows how they're so successful, they are very round and have a short snout, but their population keeps on growing!

Inspired by Lemon Sharks, Ichthyosaurs and Lemons!

I also reworked them into a Pokémon for a little contest! With a shiny and a unique ability! It's also a remnant of when their name was Lemolemo! It's cute but i wanted something more interesting

How the Ichthyosaur Got Its Fins

Have you ever wondered how aquatic reptiles evolved? No? Why not? Regardless, a new fossil discovered in 2011 is shedding light on these questions [1].

Ichthyosaurs are a class of extinct reptiles that ruled the oceans 250 million years ago [2]. Some were as large as blue whales. However, their evolution from the reptilian common ancestor has posed a problem: reptiles evolved on land while ichthyosaurs were ocean dwellers. The intermediary evolutionary steps have been a mystery. 

The mystery remained until 2011, when a fossil found in China showed what is believed to be a proto-ichthyosaur. This transitional specimen, with flippers for forelimbs and small hindlimbs, suggests that the link between ichthyosaurs and reptiles was a sea dwelling animal in the process of evolving into what would become the terrifying apex predators of the sea.

The Cartorhynchus lenticarpus [3] fossil (loosely translated as “short snout, flexible wrist”), shows that ancestral ichtyosaurs were aquatic, although they still shared traits in common with early terrestrial reptiles.

Paleontologists believe that this shows that ichthyosaurs evolved from reptiles that were already primarily aquatic, and that the old theory of walking semi-aquatic sea dinosaurs must therefore be incorrect.

The more we learn about the specifics of the history of life on earth, the more complete the picture we can put together of the origins of the spectrum of modern biodiversity will be.

NOTES:

[1] Perkins, S. How the ichthyosaur got its fins. Science News, November 5 (2014).

[2] Ichthyosaur Wikipedia page.

[3] Dell’Amore, C.   First Amphibious “Sea Monster” Found; Fills Evolutionary Gap. National Geographic, November 5 (2014).