Oldest dinosaur-era marine reptile found in Svalbard

Paleontologists have found the remains of bony fish, bizarre "crocodile-like" amphibian bones, and 11

articulated tail vertebrae of an ichthyosaur in the Flowers Valley in western Svalbard.Fossils dating back about 250 million years show that ichthyosaurs appeared much earlier than previously thought and survived the Permian extinction.

Ichthyosaurs are an extinct group of marine reptilesremains of which are found all over the world. These animals dominated the aquatic environment at the same time as dinosaurs after the great (Permian) extinction. It is believed that these land animals adapted to life on the high seas and occupied a niche vacated after the extinction of the traditional marine inhabitants of that time.

The vertebrae of ancient ichthyosaurs found on Svalbard in rocks that representcalcareous deposits deposited around decomposing remains on an ancient seafloor about 250 million years oldThis means that these reptiles were already common about 2 million years later.after the Permian extinction. 

CT scan (left) and longitudinal section (right) of one of the found vertebrae. Image: Benjamin P. Kear et al., Current Biology

At the same time, the vertebrae found do not correspond to the ideas about the ancient "predecessors of ichthyosaurs".They are identical to the bones of geologically much more recent reptiles with larger bodies.What's more, the internal microstructure of the bones reflects adaptive signs of rapid growth, increased metabolism, and an all-oceanic lifestyle. 

New data refute traditionalideas about the development of ichthyosaurs: these animals, apparently, switched to a marine lifestyle even before the start of the great extinction. The idea that terrestrial reptiles, after the extinction of marine predators, invaded shallow coastal areas and adapted to the aquatic environment does not find support. Probably the first marine tetrapods appeared before the disaster, but survived the mass extinction, and not just occupied a free niche.

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On the cover: artistic illustration of marine life in the early Triassic period. Image: Esther van Hulsen