Fossils of a huge marine predator - the first evolved to take down prey its own size - have been unearthed in Nevada.
The fossils, discovered in 1998 but only properly excavated and
analysed now, belong to Thalattoarchon saurophagis, a giant carnivore
whose name literally means "lizard eating ruler of the sea". Living
during the Triassic Period 244 million years ago, it measured at least
8.6 metres long (28 feet) and had a
massive mouth full of 5 inch long teeth. It was an apex predator and an
early member of the icthyosaurs - a group that would go on to survive
160 million years.
What's most amazing about this find is the
age. 244 million years ago is only 8 million years after the
Permian-Triassic extinction, an event so severe it's known informally as
"the Great Dying". To find a creature like T. saurophagis tells us that
a new and full ecosystem had formed - if such an ecosystem hadn't
existed, predators of this size could not exist. It also suggests that
marine ecosystems bounced back faster than land-based ones, where bigger
predators may not have evolved until the Upper Triassic several million
years later.
Image credit: Raul Martin/National Geographic.
http://www.pnas.org/content/
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http://www.redorbit.com/news/
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Fossils of a huge marine predator - the first evolved to take down prey its own size - have been unearthed in Nevada.
The fossils, discovered in 1998 but only properly excavated and analysed now, belong to Thalattoarchon saurophagis, a giant carnivore whose name literally means "lizard eating ruler of the sea". Living during the Triassic Period 244 million years ago, it measured at least 8.6 metres long (28 feet) and had a massive mouth full of 5 inch long teeth. It was an apex predator and an early member of the icthyosaurs - a group that would go on to survive 160 million years.
What's most amazing about this find is the age. 244 million years ago is only 8 million years after the Permian-Triassic extinction, an event so severe it's known informally as "the Great Dying". To find a creature like T. saurophagis tells us that a new and full ecosystem had formed - if such an ecosystem hadn't existed, predators of this size could not exist. It also suggests that marine ecosystems bounced back faster than land-based ones, where bigger predators may not have evolved until the Upper Triassic several million years later.
Image credit: Raul Martin/National Geographic.
http://www.pnas.org/content/
http://
http://www.redorbit.com/news/
http://www.wired.com/
http://
The fossils, discovered in 1998 but only properly excavated and analysed now, belong to Thalattoarchon saurophagis, a giant carnivore whose name literally means "lizard eating ruler of the sea". Living during the Triassic Period 244 million years ago, it measured at least 8.6 metres long (28 feet) and had a massive mouth full of 5 inch long teeth. It was an apex predator and an early member of the icthyosaurs - a group that would go on to survive 160 million years.
What's most amazing about this find is the age. 244 million years ago is only 8 million years after the Permian-Triassic extinction, an event so severe it's known informally as "the Great Dying". To find a creature like T. saurophagis tells us that a new and full ecosystem had formed - if such an ecosystem hadn't existed, predators of this size could not exist. It also suggests that marine ecosystems bounced back faster than land-based ones, where bigger predators may not have evolved until the Upper Triassic several million years later.
Image credit: Raul Martin/National Geographic.
http://www.pnas.org/content/
http://
http://www.redorbit.com/news/
http://www.wired.com/
http://
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