Oldest sea reptile remains from 2 million years ago found on Arctic island

SPITSBERGEN, Norway – The continues to be of the earliest recognized ‘fish-lizard’ from the Age of Dinosaurs have been identified on a remote Arctic island.

Swedish and Norwegian paleontologists located fossils of the earliest recognised ichthyosaur on Spitsbergen following virtually 190 decades of searching.

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Reconstruction of the earliest ichthyosaur and the 250-million-12 months-outdated ecosystem identified on Spitsbergen. (Esther van Hulsen)

Exploration done with The Museum of Evolution at Uppsala College served detect the bony fish and ‘crocodile-like’ amphibian bones, alongside one another with its 11 articulated tail vertebrae.

According to the college, ichthyosaurs ended up an extinct group of maritime reptiles whose fossils have been recovered all over the world. They had been amid the initial land-living animals to adapt to everyday living in the open up sea about 250 million several years in the past. They afterwards advanced their human body shape very similar to modern whales.

The remains were uncovered in limestone boulders all through a 2014 expedition to Flower’s valley alongside the southern shore of Ice Fjord in western Spitsbergen. They were later transported back to the Organic Record Museum at the University of Oslo for upcoming analyze. 

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Fossil-bearing rocks on Spitsbergen that develop the earliest ichthyosaur continues to be.(Benjamin Kear)

“Unexpectedly, these vertebrae transpired within just rocks that had been supposedly far too old for ichthyosaurs,” the university said in a information launch this 7 days. “Also, relatively than representing the textbook example of an amphibious ichthyosaur ancestor, the vertebrae are equivalent to individuals of geologically a lot young larger-bodied ichthyosaurs, and even protect inner bone microstructure showing adaptive hallmarks of rapid progress, elevated fat burning capacity and a thoroughly oceanic way of life.”

Geochemical tests of the surrounding rock confirmed the age of the fossils at roughly two million many years. 

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Computed tomography graphic and cross-area displaying inside bone composition of vertebrae from the earliest ichthyosaur. (Oyvind Hammer and Jorn Hurum)

“Given the approximated timescale of oceanic reptile evolution, this pushes back again the origin and early diversification of ichthyosaurs to prior to the commencing of the Age of Dinosaurs therefore forcing a revision of the textbook interpretation and revealing that ichthyosaurs probably initially radiated into maritime environments prior to the extinction event,” the college claimed. 

In accordance to paleontologists, fossils of the ichthyosaur’s most historic ancestors are nevertheless awaiting discovery in even more mature rocks on Spitsbergen and in other places in the planet.

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