A nearly complete fossil skeleton found on Britain's Jurassic Coast represents a newly identified species of ancient marine reptile that lived alongside dinosaurs.
The ichthyosaur named Xyphodragon golden capsisprobably measured about 10 feet (3 meters) long during life, according to a study published Friday (Oct. 10) in the journal. Articles on paleontology. It had large eye sockets and a long, narrow, sword-shaped snout.
Fossil collector Chris Moore found the remains in 2001 on the Jurassic Coast, a 96-mile (154-kilometer) stretch of coastline in Dorset known as a treasure trove of fossils.
Soon after, Moore sold the fossil to the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada. Although it was identified as an ichthyosaur, it was not studied in detail until recently.
“I remember seeing the skeleton for the first time in 2016,” study co-author. Dean Lomax– said a paleontologist from the University of Manchester and Bristol. statement. “I knew it was unusual then, but I didn't expect it to play such a key role in filling the gap in our understanding of the complex faunal turnover of the Pliensbachian.”
New genus name Xiphodragoncomes from the Greek words “xiphos”, meaning sword, and “dracon”, meaning “dragon” – a reference to the ichthyosaurs' nickname “sea dragons”. Its species name “golden capsis” comes from the name of the site on the Jurassic Coast, “Golden Cap”, where the ichthyosaur was found.
The fossil also hints at how an individual ichthyosaur lived and died.
“The limb bones and teeth are deformed in a way that indicates serious injury or disease while the animal was still alive, and the skull appears to have been bitten by a large predator—likely another much larger species of ichthyosaur—giving us the cause of death of this individual,” study co-author Erin Maxwellcurator of fossil aquatic vertebrates at the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart in Germany, the statement said. “Life in the Mesozoic oceans was a dangerous prospect.”
X. golden capsis may also help clarify a major shift in ichthyosaur speciation in the Early Jurassic. Although scientists have discovered many ichthyosaur fossils before and after the Pliensbachian, the two groups share very few species in common, suggesting that a significant species change occurred somewhere during the Pliensbachian. In fact, fossils of ichthyosaurs from the Pliensbachian period are rare.
The newly discovered ichthyosaur is “more closely related to species from the later Early Jurassic… and its discovery helps pinpoint when a faunal change occurred, which occurred much earlier than expected,” Lomax said. In other words, the shift most likely occurred in the early Pliensbachian. However, scientists do not yet know what caused this revolution.
For now X. golden capsis the fossil will be exhibited at the Royal Ontario Museum.
