The new species, an ichthyosaur named Sclerocormus parviceps, was a marine reptile dating to the Lower Triassic, and it looked nothing like other ichthyosaurs scientists have studied.
Ichthyosaurs were marine reptiles that lived at the same time as Earth’s earliest dinosaurs. Most had dolphin-like forms – strong tail fin, long telltale snout and sleek body. But the new animal had a stubby snout and a long tail — sans the big fin at the end.
Stranger still, ichthyosaurs typically had ample teeth for catching food, but Sclerocormus parviceps had no teeth at all. The researchers think its snout was built for sucking in food like a needle drawing blood.
The fossil dates to the time just after the Permian-Triassic event, which took out nearly all marine species and the vast majority of terrestrial vertebrates. Scientists had thought it was slow going for marine reptiles rebounding from that period, with evolutionary processes unfolding slowly.
However, the new fossil, looking nothing like its ancient relatives, challenges those notions.
“Sclerocormus tells us that ichthyosauriforms evolved and diversified rapidly at the end of the Lower Triassic period,” said study co-author Olivier Rieppel, of The Field Museum, in a statement.
“We don’t have many marine reptile fossils from this period,” Rieppel added, “so this specimen is important because it suggests that there’s diversity that hasn’t been uncovered yet.”
Fossil Shows Pre-Dino Reptile Giving Birth
Rieppel said the new reptile offered a peek at real-world evolution in action.
“Darwin’s model of evolution consists of small, gradual changes over a long period of time, and that’s not quite what we’re seeing here,” he said. “These ichthyosauriforms seem to have evolved very quickly, in short bursts of lots of change, in leaps and bounds.”
Read more at Discovery News
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