The remains of a huge sea creature with huge teeth that could have helped it capture giant squid have been found in the Swiss Alps.
Ichthyosaurs were large marine reptiles. They emerged after the end of the great dying of land and marine species, which wiped out more than two-thirds of the species on land.
One of the three giant irrthyosaurs discovered in the Swiss Alps is thought to have lived about 205 million years ago, making them some of the last giant irrthyosaurs.
The team said the findings helped resolve the question of whether giant ichthyosaurs had teeth.
Prof Martin Sander, a co-author of the study, said that it was all very, very Scanty evidence. We don't know what the ghosts look like because they are swimming in the late Triassic oceans. It's an embarrassment.
We thought they had teeth. We never find any teeth. There is a giant tooth and a giant tooth. Some of them have teeth.
The team describe how they discovered fossils from three giant ichthyosaurs at different sites.
An incomplete tooth from one of the beasts was found. The team found a large amount of rib and vertebra fragments. The third had seven large vertebrae. None of the remains appeared to be from a known species.
The team say the tooth is the largest ever found for a giant ichthyosaur and is the second to have come from one of the animals.
Ichthyosaurs have a tooth structure that is visible in the root and also in the crown, and it is likely that the toothy giant discovered in the Alps would have eaten smaller Ichthyosaur.
One of the creatures appeared to be about the same size as Himalayasaurus, and the other two, including the toothy beast, were probably similar in size to the giant ichthy Shastasaurus, a creature found previously in British Columbia.
They are not the largest of their kind. The Bristol channel contains a toothless jawbone that is thought to be that of a long-necked reptile.
When you get a sperm whale in the North Sea, it's kind of the same problem.
It is possible that the creatures entered shallow waters to mate or give birth, according to Dr Ben Moon. He said the new report was exciting because there were few fossils of giant ichthyosaurs.
Dr Nick Fraser said it was difficult to determine the size of a giant ichthyosaur based on a tooth alone, but that the finds shed new light on the reptiles.
He said that the size of the newly reported tooth was stunning and that he had suspected that most of the largest ichthyosaurs were toothless.
Fraser said that the owner of the tooth was not to be messed with.
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