Fossils of some of the largest floating creatures in Earth’s oceans – whale-sized marine reptiles called ichthyosaurs – have been found at an opposite location: up to 8,990 feet (2,740 m) above sea level on three mountains in the Swiss Alps.
Scientists on Thursday described rib and vertebrate fossils from two ichthyosaur individuals: one about 69 feet (21 meters) long and the other about 49 feet (15 meters). He described from a third individual the largest known tooth of any ichthyosaur, with a base measuring 2.4 inches (6 cm) wide and an estimated length of 6 inches (15 cm), indicative of a formidable predator.
Fossils dated to around 205 million years ago, near the end of the Triassic period, make these three individuals one of the largest giant ichthyosaurs to have lived in the oceans at a time when dinosaurs began to dominate land.
“The tooth is particularly interesting because it probably – but unlikely – represents the largest animal that ever lived on Earth,” said paleontologist Martin Sander of the University of Bonn, lead author of the study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
It was found atop the Krachenhorn Mountains near Davos. Based on the fact that the 59-foot-long (18 m-long) ichthyosaur described last year had a base tooth eight-tenths of an inch (2 cm) wide, Sander said, “Then a tooth 6 cm wide was probably 54 m ( 177 feet) in length.”
The animal was probably not that big, but was nonetheless formidable, probably preying on giant squid, large fish and small ichthyosaurs, similar to a sperm whale. Some other giant ichthyosaurs apparently lacked teeth and ate small fish and squid, sucking them or holding them in their mouths.
Giant ichthyosaurs – the largest marine reptiles ever lived – had elongated bodies with relatively small skulls.
The fossils were found in the 1970s and 1980s at three sites in the Eastern Alps in Switzerland, said study co-author Heinz Fürer, a retired curator at Zurich’s Paleontological Institute and Museum, who had studied them with other geology students at the time. was discovered. , Fossils are being described scientifically for the first time.
The drastic motion of the giant plates that make up the Earth’s crust in a process called plate tectonics explains how fossils formed in an ancient ocean floor ended up on top of mountains.
“The Alps have a very complex structure, consisting of huge slabs of rock in which the former sea floor, called nappes, are stacked on top of each other by the African Plate pushing into the European Plate. Coming from ichthyosaurs Knap is the tallest pile. This pile has happened in the last 35 million years,” Sander said.
The remains are too incomplete to definitively determine their species, but they probably belonged to an ichthyosaur family called Shastasauridae. This family includes the largest known ichthyosaurs: Shastasaurus, with one specimen from Canada indicating a length of 69 feet (21 m).
Some researchers have proposed longer ichthyosaur lengths based on partial fossils.
Until now, giant ichthyosaurs were not known from so close to the end of the Triassic. They disappeared in a mass extinction event at the conclusion of the Triassic, about 201 million years ago – and no sea creatures became as large again until the baleen whales, about 3 million years ago. Small ichthyosaurs lived until about 90 million years ago.
“In the history of life on Earth there were three groups of animals that were true giants: ichthyosaurs of the Triassic, which came first but remained only ghosts; long-necked sauropod dinosaurs on land; and today’s baleen whales,” Sander said.
Today, the blue whale, about 98 feet (30 m) long, is considered the largest creature on Earth. Sander said future research on giant Triassic ichthyosaurs could challenge this conclusion.
Scientists on Thursday described rib and vertebrate fossils from two ichthyosaur individuals: one about 69 feet (21 meters) long and the other about 49 feet (15 meters). He described from a third individual the largest known tooth of any ichthyosaur, with a base measuring 2.4 inches (6 cm) wide and an estimated length of 6 inches (15 cm), indicative of a formidable predator.
Fossils dated to around 205 million years ago, near the end of the Triassic period, make these three individuals one of the largest giant ichthyosaurs to have lived in the oceans at a time when dinosaurs began to dominate land.
“The tooth is particularly interesting because it probably – but unlikely – represents the largest animal that ever lived on Earth,” said paleontologist Martin Sander of the University of Bonn, lead author of the study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
It was found atop the Krachenhorn Mountains near Davos. Based on the fact that the 59-foot-long (18 m-long) ichthyosaur described last year had a base tooth eight-tenths of an inch (2 cm) wide, Sander said, “Then a tooth 6 cm wide was probably 54 m ( 177 feet) in length.”
The animal was probably not that big, but was nonetheless formidable, probably preying on giant squid, large fish and small ichthyosaurs, similar to a sperm whale. Some other giant ichthyosaurs apparently lacked teeth and ate small fish and squid, sucking them or holding them in their mouths.
Giant ichthyosaurs – the largest marine reptiles ever lived – had elongated bodies with relatively small skulls.
The fossils were found in the 1970s and 1980s at three sites in the Eastern Alps in Switzerland, said study co-author Heinz Fürer, a retired curator at Zurich’s Paleontological Institute and Museum, who had studied them with other geology students at the time. was discovered. , Fossils are being described scientifically for the first time.
The drastic motion of the giant plates that make up the Earth’s crust in a process called plate tectonics explains how fossils formed in an ancient ocean floor ended up on top of mountains.
“The Alps have a very complex structure, consisting of huge slabs of rock in which the former sea floor, called nappes, are stacked on top of each other by the African Plate pushing into the European Plate. Coming from ichthyosaurs Knap is the tallest pile. This pile has happened in the last 35 million years,” Sander said.
The remains are too incomplete to definitively determine their species, but they probably belonged to an ichthyosaur family called Shastasauridae. This family includes the largest known ichthyosaurs: Shastasaurus, with one specimen from Canada indicating a length of 69 feet (21 m).
Some researchers have proposed longer ichthyosaur lengths based on partial fossils.
Until now, giant ichthyosaurs were not known from so close to the end of the Triassic. They disappeared in a mass extinction event at the conclusion of the Triassic, about 201 million years ago – and no sea creatures became as large again until the baleen whales, about 3 million years ago. Small ichthyosaurs lived until about 90 million years ago.
“In the history of life on Earth there were three groups of animals that were true giants: ichthyosaurs of the Triassic, which came first but remained only ghosts; long-necked sauropod dinosaurs on land; and today’s baleen whales,” Sander said.
Today, the blue whale, about 98 feet (30 m) long, is considered the largest creature on Earth. Sander said future research on giant Triassic ichthyosaurs could challenge this conclusion.