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It is well knows that dinosaurs lived on the surface of the Earth in a very distant period of time. On the Earth ! But what if there was a species that joined them in the water also?
The scientists have identified a species of ichthyosaur that lived under the seas around Scotland, in the Middle Jurassic period. Brian Shawcross has named it “Dearcmhara shawcrossi” after he has found its remains in the year 1959. It has been stated that this animal was feeding with other smaller reptiles and the resemblance of it brings to something in between a crocodile and a dolphin. The size of the ichthyosaur was about as the size of a regular white shark. Since they had been discovered, the remains have remained in a museum in Glasgow because of some kind of delay of the paleontologists there in Scotland. The isle of the findings in 1959 is called Isle of Skye. This piece of land was underwater 170 million years ago and it is the main reason why in this particular place many Jurassic fossils can be found, the University of Edinburgh stated.
The head of the Department of Natural Sciences for National Museums Scotland, Dr. Nick Fraser, says that:
“Not only is this a very special discovery, but it also marks the beginning of a major new collaboration involving some of the most eminent paleontologists in Scotland.”
The Scottish Journal of Geology published all the data about the marine dinosaur fossils found in Scotland , today, January the 12th, through the paleontologist Stephen Brusatte. He says that this ichthyosaur is one of a few select specimens of this certain age in the world, and fortunately, it is distinctly Scottish.
Ichthyosaurs were the descendents of whales and sharks. The first one of the specie was discovered in England. This particular one is named after a Gaelic word that means “marine lizard” (Dearcmhara). Stephen Brusatte says that because it is not a very beautiful kind of an animal, people might have been frightened of him and never looked at it closely, in that case in which it would have been found somewhere else.
The creature of 14 feet (4.3 meters) long is believed to be found in other museums and private collectors’ homes, and Mister Brusatte is very optimist about finding them and getting them back into the museum with the other one. One of his hopes is that all teeth found in the southern coast of England that apparently are from a certain species of ichthyosaur might lead him to the other passionate collectors.
Image Source: Ifl Science
