Fossils found are of ichthyosaurs that look like dolphins but are giant (Image: Jeannet Ruegg / Henz Furrer / University of Zurich)
News summary
Scientists have found ichthyosaur fossils
Animals that went extinct millions of years ago were marine reptiles
Fossils found at 2,800 meters in the Swiss Alps
Researchers have found fossils of nowextinct giant marine reptiles that weighed up to 80 tons and measured 20 meters long. Known as an ichthyosaur, the specimen was like a cross between a lizard and a fish.
The discovery was published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology last Thursday (28). Fossils of three ichthyosaurs have been found which, despite being marine reptiles, were located in regions of the Swiss Alps at an altitude of 2,800 meters.
According to the publication, the animals are thought to have appeared in the ocean around 250 million years ago and their shape resembled that of dolphins, with small heads and longer bodies.
Ichthyosaurs became extinct in the Permian, the last period of the Paleozoic. At that time, 95% of marine animals were eliminated from land. Fossils of this type are considered rare.
Fossils of three different ichthyosaurs were found, one measuring 20 meters long and the other 15 meters long. The researchers also found the largest ichthyosaur tooth ever seen.
“This is huge by ichthyosaur standards: its root was 60 millimeters in diameter the largest specimen in a complete skull to date was 20 millimeters in size and came from an ichthyosaur almost 18 meters long,” explains Professor P. Martin Sander of Vertebrate Paleontology from the University of Bonn, Germany, lead author of the study.
How fossils got to the Swiss Alps
Study coauthor Heinz Furrer, a retired curator at the University of Zurich’s Paleontological Institute and Museum, explained that the group believes the large ichthyosaurs followed schools of fish into the lagoon and died there. The lagoon formed from what is now the Alps about 200 million years ago.
The formation of the mountain region began 95 million years ago with the movement of tectonic plates.