This extinct marine predator started out as a small tadpole-seal hybrid with weird teeth
CNN — Ichthyosaurs were the main predators of the oceans millions of years ago. Cartorhynchus lived 248 million years ago during the late Lower Triassic period, an interesting time for Earth’s diversifying creatures. Ryosuke Motani After the Permian mass extinction decimated the ocean population 252 million years ago, there was room for new creatures to arrive on the scene, flourish, grow and evolve. “That’s what makes these early ichthyosaurs so interesting – they tell us about the recovery from the mass extinction, because they entered the sea only after it.” Ichthyosaurs diversified over time and existed from the time of Cartorhynchus 248 million years ago until they went extinct 95 million years ago – about 30 million years before the asteroid strike. By studying this early ichthyosaur’s unusual rounded teeth, we get a better understanding of how these animals evolved and what their lifestyles were like.” Going forward, Rieppel said that more fossils like Cartorhynchus are needed to reconstruct the evolutionary origin of ichthyosaurs.
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