Ichthyosaurus
Ichthyosaurus communis
Fossils found by Mary Anning and her family at Lyme Regis helped shape palaeontology as a scientific discipline.
Image: Gary Todd · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
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Characteristics
- Scientific name
- Ichthyosaurus communis
- Period
- Early Jurassic (Hettangian–Sinemurian)
- Lived
- 199–190 Ma (199 million years ago)
- Diet
- Piscivore
- Habitat
- Open sea
- Length (estimate)
- 2 m
- Discovered/described
- 1811 · Mary Anning and her brother Joseph
Description
Ichthyosaurus had a streamlined body, large eyes and four paddle-like limbs that enabled efficient swimming. Its jaws bore numerous conical teeth, probably used to catch fish and cephalopods. Fossils show that ichthyosaurs gave birth to live young, although not all such finds belong to this species. Specimens from Lyme Regis provided an important foundation for early understanding of extinct marine reptiles.
Habitat
Shallow seas and coastal waters of Jurassic Europe.
Fossil sites
Lyme Regis, Dorset
Blue Lias Formation
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Contemporaries in the database
Sources: Ichthyosaurus