Fossils uncover new species of marine reptiles from the Jurassic period!

Image courtesy: University of California Museum of Paleontology

New Delhi: The Jurassic period is an era that every scientist and/or historian has been obsessed with. They are hooked on to the inhabitants of that time.

The first thing that comes to our mind on hearing the word 'Jurassic' is undoubtedly, dinosaurs, because of countless movies made on them.

But now, scientists have caught on to something else of that era , which has them excited - a new species of extinct marine reptiles!

Yes, the new species of marine reptiles have been identified from fossils collected over a century ago.

They have been identified as British Ichthyosaur, resembled dolphins or sharks and were ocean dwelling reptiles.

Described as being fierce predators, they had the tendency to grow up to 15 metres long.

Ichthyosaur lived around 200 million years ago in the early Jurassic period, a time when the UK was a small series of islands.

The six year study, led by the University of Manchester in the UK, set out to search for British examples of ichthyosaurs and researchers were able to identify features in the skull and fins of fossilised remains that distinguished the new species from others.

The skeletal remains, out of which the new species has been identified was on display at the University of Bristol in the UK, for many years. The research was carried out by Dean Lomax, scientist at University of Manchester and Judy Massare, professor at Brockport College, in the US.

“It is quite amazing – hundreds of people must walk past this skeleton every day, yet its secrets have only just been uncovered,” said Lomax. “We have named the species Ichthyosaurus larkini in honour of the British palaeontologist Nigel Larkin – the name Larkin actually means ‘fierce’ so it is quite fitting for a fast-moving predator,” Lomax said.

“Ichthyosaurs, with their similarities to both modern fish and dolphins, are among the more arresting and captivating fossil specimens known; we are very lucky to have two such specimens on display in the Wills Memorial Building, as part of the University of Bristol School of Earth Sciences Collection,” said Jonathan Hanson, from University of Bristol.

The study was published in the journal Papers in Palaeontology.

(With PTI inputs)