Science Ticker Paleontology

A baby ichthyosaur’s last meal revealed

ichthyosaur illustration

Baby ichthyosaurs like the one illustrated here may have noshed on squid, a new analysis of a museum fossil suggests.

Julian Kiely

By Helen Thompson

As far as last meals go, squid isn’t a bad choice. Cephalopod remains appear to dominate the stomach contents of a newly analyzed ichthyosaur fossil from nearly 200 million years ago.

The ancient marine reptiles once roamed Jurassic seas and commonly pop up in England’s fossil-rich coast near Lyme Regis. But a lot of ichthyosaur museum specimens lack records of where they came from, making their age difficult to place.

Dean Lomax of the University of Manchester and his colleagues reexamined one such fossil. Based on its skull, they identified the creature as a newborn Ichthyosaurus communis. Microfossils of shrimp and amoeba species around the ichthyosaur put the specimen at 199 million to 196 million years old, the researchers estimate.

Tiny hook structures stand out in the newborn’s ribs — most likely the remnants of prehistoric black squid arms. Another baby ichthyosaur fossil that lived more recently had a stomach full of fish scales. So the new find suggests a shift in the menu for young ichthyosaurs at some point in their evolutionary history, the researchers write October 3 in Historical Biology.

This roughly 2-foot-long baby ichthyosaur represents an exceptionally well-preserved Ichthyosaurus communis and the first newborn discovered from that species. Dean Lomax
Helen Thompson

About Helen Thompson

Helen Thompson is the associate digital editor. She has undergraduate degrees in biology and English from Trinity University and a master’s degree in science writing from Johns Hopkins University.

More Stories from Science News on Paleontology

  1. A wide photo of a valley on Ellesmere Island in Canada with mountains in the background.
    Life

    Fossils suggest early primates lived in a once-swampy Arctic

    By Freda Kreier
  2. Illustration of a Cratonavis bird from 120 million years ago as it catches prey. We see into the bird's wings as if it were an x-ray.
    Paleontology

    A bird with a T. rex head may help reveal how dinosaurs became birds

    By Aaron Tremper
  3. An illustration of Shonisaurus popularis, ancient dolphinlike reptiles, swimming in water
    Paleontology

    Mysterious ichthyosaur graveyard may have been a breeding ground

    By Carolyn Gramling
  4. A close up photo of a fossilized male katydid
    Paleontology

    Katydids had the earliest known insect ears 160 million years ago

    By Erin Garcia de Jesús
  5. Two heavily armored dinosaurs swing long tail clubs at one another, crossing against the sunset on a strangely barren landscape
    Paleontology

    Armored dinos may have used their tail clubs to bludgeon each other

    By Jake Buehler
  6. A blonde woman points at a tooth on T. rex skull dubbed Maximus
    Paleontology

    Why the sale of a T. rex fossil could be a big loss for science

    By Carolyn Gramling
  7. An illustration of a Natovenator polydontus sitting on top of a body of water with its feet visible below the water line
    Paleontology

    This dinosaur may have had a body like a duck’s

    By Nikk Ogasa
  8. Computer artwork of extinct woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) in a snow-covered field. A bison stands in the distance.
    Paleontology

    Mammoths may have gone extinct much earlier than DNA suggests

    By Bas den Hond

From the Nature Index

Paid Content