A sea lizard with a skull the size of a grand piano died in the ancient ocean that is now Nevada. It was most likely the size of a modern sperm whale, and it was an Ichthyosaur.
There are a lot of things in common between whales and ichthyosaurs. Both descend from animals that returned to the sea after being on land. Both giant bodies were the largest creatures in the seas when they lived. Both babies were born live young.
It took 45 million years for whales to evolve into giant bodies. The sea lizards evolved big bodies at a rapid rate, and this new species of giant irrthyosaur appeared three million years after the first one. This giant lived before small dinosaurs were common on land, so the world wouldn't see it for 40 million years.
A group of scientists reconstructed the food webs of a newosaur in a paper published in the journal Science.
Benjamin C. Moon, a researcher at the University of Bristol in England, was not involved in the research. It is not a long time to go from being just in the water to dominating in such large sizes.
Fossil Hill, Nev., was where the Ichthyosaur was first discovered. The site was difficult to transport equipment to because the bones were in steep mountains. Dr. Schmitz said it was very strenuous. It was a huge effort to get it out of the field.
The reptile's humerus was dwarfed by the rock hammer, and Dr. Schmitz felt that the fossil's large size was a big deal. He said it made him feel small.
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An artist's reconstruction of Cymbospondylus youngorum in the Triassic ocean, present-day Nevada.
In 2015, the researchers finished excavating the remains of the icthyosaur and sent them to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County to be prepared. The associate curator of marine mammals at the museum said it was mind-blowing to see it.
The authors think the dinosaur grew as long as 55 feet. Dr. Moon suggested a more conservative range of 45 to 50 feet. They said it was the same ballpark of modern day whales. There was nothing else like these things.
The most severe mass extinction in Earth's history happened in the late 19th century and killed off 81 percent of marine life. The researchers had a question about how big it became. Dr. Schmitz said so.
In modern oceans, giant whales are feeding on plankton through their mouths. The abundance of modern plankton, which allowed whales to become so large, did not exist when the ancient oceans had enough energy to support such a large predator.
Eva Maria Griebeler, an evolutionary ecologist at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany and an author of the paper, examined fossils gathered from the Nevada site to reconstruct the food webs of the ancient seas. Dr. Griebeler said that she and other researchers consulted teeth and stomach content to understand who ate who. The teeth of the Ichthyosaur suggest it fed on fish and squid.
Dr. Moon said to count the number and size of the predator at the top, and the number and size of their prey, to see whether these numbers add up.
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The helicopter support was needed to remove the skull fossil.
Dr. Griebeler found that there was enough energy to support the giants. They ate other creatures that were crushed by the ammonites, but they didn't directly feed on the ammonites. Dr. Griebeler said it was an astonishing thing. The food web has a completely different structure than before.
Lene Liebe Delsett, a paleontologist at the National Museum of Natural History who was not involved with the research, praised the study's food web model as a "first step" toward understanding the ocean Triassic environment. She said that there was still so much that they didn't know.
How did whales take 45 million years to grow to three million years old? Dr. Velez-Juarbe said he couldn't think of any other marine animals that evolved large body sizes as quickly as the ichthyosaurs. The authors suggest that the large eyes and endothermy of the reptile may have made them better hunters. The mass extinction may have offered life an opportunity to change.
Dr. Delsett believes that research on extinct marine giants can offer insight into the preservation of whales.
The Ichthyosaurs lived through one mass extinction and climate change. It is easier to take care of the oceans if you understand marine evolution.
