Ichthyosaur: the oldest marine animal that lived in the Jurassic was discovered in India

A "sea monster" that lived 150 million years ago. Scientists from the University of Delhi, India, found the skeleton almost intact. The discovery will help paleontologists shed light on the migrations of these animals between continents

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A "sea monster" that lived 150 million years ago. Scientists from the University of Delhi, India, found the skeleton almost intact. The discovery will help paleontologists shed light on the migrations of these animals between continents.

Physically similar to a dolphin but actually reptilian, this creature known as ichthyosaurus it was discovered after 1500 hours of excavation in an unexpected geographical area. It is in fact the first of its kind to be found in Northwest India.

"Vertebrate fossils are rare from the Kachchh region and we only expected bone fragments in this area", has explained Guntupalli VR Prasad, one of the researchers who carried out the study.

Native to oceans with warm and humid climates, ichthyosaurs lived around Pangea, the supercontinent of the Earth that began to move at the time.

Indian paleontologists found the skeleton south of Lodai village, located in Gujarat province, in 2016. The bones were encased in dense sedimentary rock and put a strain on scientists, who worked in a very hot and cold region. with extreme delicacy to extract the skeleton and leave important pieces such as the jaw intact, useful to understand what it fed on.

According to Prasad, ichthyosaurs were as long as a small boat of about 5 meters, they fed on molluscs, fish but also on other marine reptiles.

It's not just aboutmost complete Indian ichthyosaur discovered so far but also of the first of the Jurassic period found in India. The other creatures found earlier were all at least 50 million years younger.

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The peculiarity of this discovery is also linked to the fact that ichthyosaurs lived mainly in thenorthern hemisphere of the Earth, which is why finding a specimen in India has intrigued scientists, prompting them to study its migrations.

The study was published in PlosOne.

Francesca Mancuso

cover photo