New Icthyosaur discovered in Kurdistan

Ziphius

Stumbled across this by chance.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/04/130514-sea-monster-new-species-paleontology-science-evolution/?source=hp_dl1_news_sea_monster_discovery_20130516

A primitive icthyosaur which survived into the mid Cretaceous. And given the wonderful name Malawania anachronus.

Quite cool as it shows that Cretaceous Icthyosaurs were more diverse than previously believed.

Rubecula

From the same source:

Ichthyosaurs were dolphin-like reptiles that lived some 120 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period . Their toothy, three-foot-long (meter-long) snouts were equipped with roughly a hundred teeth to nab fish and squid in chilly southern oceans.

Adam Khor

Rubecula wrote: »

From the same source:

Ichthyosaurs were dolphin-like reptiles that lived some 120 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period . Their toothy, three-foot-long (meter-long) snouts were equipped with roughly a hundred teeth to nab fish and squid in chilly southern oceans.

They must have meant until 120 million years ago which is when they were thought to have gone extinct before finds like this...

The golden ages of ichthyosaurs are still the Triassic and Jurassic...