ICHTHYOSAUR FOUND ON REMOTE ARTIC ISLAND UPENDS PREVIOUS EVOLUTIONARY THEORY
PALAEONTOLOGISTS HAVE FOUND THE REMAINS OF AN ICHTHYOSAUR ON THE ISLAND OF SPITSBERGEN, LOCATED IN THE SVALBARD ARCHIPELAGO IN NORTHERN NORWAY.
Ichthyosaurs are large extinct marine reptiles that thrived during much of the Mesozoic era. They first appeared around 250 million years ago (Ma), with one species of the order known as Ichthyosauria, surviving until around 90 million years ago into the Late Cretaceous.
During the Early Triassic epoch, it was believed that ichthyosaurs and other ichthyosauromorphs evolved from a group of unidentified land reptiles that returned to the sea. Over time, these early amphibious reptiles became more efficient at swimming and eventually modified their limbs into flippers. They developed a ‘fish-like’ body shape and started giving birth to live young; thus, severing their final tie with the land.
On the southern shores in the Ice Fjord in western Spitsbergen, an expedition in 2014 collected a large number of concretions which were transported to the Natural History Museum at the University of Oslo for further study. The concretions were formed by limey sediments that settled around decomposing animal remains on the ancient seabed.
A study of the concretions found bony fish and bizarre ‘crocodile-like’ amphibian bones, together with 11 articulated tail vertebrae from an ichthyosaur in concretion deposits supposedly too old for ichthyosaurs to have existed.
https://www.heritagedaily.com/2023/03/ichthyosaur-found-on-remote-artic-island-upends-previous-evolutionary-theory/146509
