Guntupalli Prasad said the discovery “throws light on the evolution and diversity of ichthyosaurs in the Indo-Madagascan region of the former Gondwanaland.”
A 150-year-old “sea monster” fossil has been unearthed in India, Fox News reported. The giant ‘lizard fish’ ichthyosaur was 5.5 meters long and the adults of the creature ranged in length from 4.5 meters to 9 meters. The sea animal looked similar to the present day dolphins and lived on the planet during the era of dinosaurs. The fossil was excavated from village Lodai in Kachchh district of Gujarat (western India).
As the fossil is almost complete and found in well-preserved condition, the scientists believe that it will provide a wealth of information. The report said the Ichthyosaur had large and strong teeth. It said, “this one’s bones were embedded among fossilized ammonites and squid-like belemnites.”
The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE by the University of Delhi. The article in the journal said, “The robustness of the teeth preserved in the premaxilla and extensive enamel spalling on one of the surfaces indicates that the teeth were used to grasp a prey with hard exterior such as armoured fish, crustaceans, and thick-shelled ammonites as in the case of the crunch guild of Massare.”
Mostly found in North America and Europe, the discovery will help improve the records and studies related to ichthyosaurs in India.
The Fox News reported that the excavation took 1500 man-hours and that only a part of the skull and some portions of the tail bones were missing.
“This is a remarkable discovery not only because it is the first Jurassic ichthyosaur record from India, but also it throws light on the evolution and diversity of ichthyosaurs in the Indo-Madagascan region of the former Gondwanaland and India’s biological connectivity with other continents in the Jurassic,” wrote Guntupalli Prasad, the lead researcher, according to the Fox News.
Responding to the new finding, Steve Brusatte, the University of Edinburgh paleontologist, told National Geographic, “This find helps to show how globally widespread ichthyosaurs were during the time of dinosaurs.”
He said, “They seem to have lived everywhere in the oceans, all over the world, at the same time dinosaurs were thundering across the land.”