With a huge, wide jaw, a newly described marine reptile once spread terror across the ocean. The approximately 170 million year old fossil from the dinosaur era is one of the oldest known mega-pliosaurs, a research team reports in the journal ‘Scientific Reports’. The giant was therefore assigned to a new group, called Lorrainosaurus.
The find suggests that the reign of giant predatory pliosaurs must have begun earlier than previously thought. Pliosaurs were among the most successful marine predators of their time, playing a role in the ocean similar to that of killer whales today, according to the study.
Up to ten meters long
Individual species can grow to more than ten meters in length. The species now described was probably about six meters long, had a jaw about 1.3 meters long with large, conical teeth and a torpedo-shaped body. The animals moved with four flipper-like limbs.
Dynasty of mega marine reptiles
The Lorrainosaurus fossils were found in 1983 in a roadside ditch near Metz in Lorraine, northeastern France. Only now have they been examined in detail by paleontologists from, among others, the Bielefeld Natural History Museum and Uppsala University (Sweden). “Lorrainosaurus was one of the first truly large pliosaurs,” explains Sven Sachs of the Natural History Museum. He founded a dynasty of predatory mega-marine reptiles that dominated the oceans for about 80 million years.
Pliosaurs were marine reptiles with short necks and massive skulls. Their evolution into giant apex predators led to a global decline of other predatory marine reptiles more than 170 million years ago, according to an Uppsala University statement on the research. Lorrainosaurus is therefore the oldest known example of giant pliosaurs.
Source: Krone
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