Megapredator: ancient marine reptile’s last meal was another giant beast
- Scientists discover skeleton of huge, lizardlike thalattosaur inside stomach of 230 million-year-old ichthyosaur fossil dug up in China
- Researchers previously thought prehistoric reptile ate smaller prey
A giant, dolphin-like marine reptile known as an ichthyosaur that swam the oceans more than 230 million years ago was probably a megapredator, scientists said on Thursday after studying the fossilised remains of one for a decade.
How did they reach this conclusion? They discovered the skeleton of a second, almost as large, lizardlike aquatic reptile known as a thalattosaur in the ichthyosaur’s stomach.
A paper describing the finding was published in the journal iScience, capping a journey that began in 2010 when paleontologists digging in a quarry in southwestern China made the rare discovery.
While the researchers cannot know for certain whether the four-metre (13-foot) long thalattosaur was hunted or scavenged by the five-meter long ichthyosaur, certain signs suggest it met a violent end.
“There are no signs of rotting of the prey – if it was a rotten carcass, you would not expect to see the fingers still attached to the body,” said co-author Ryosuke Motani, a paleobiologist at the University of California, Davis.