The team described I. severnensis in a studypublishedtoday in PLoS One.
Ichthyosaurs were ancient, sea-dwelling reptiles that disappeared about 90 million years ago.
severnensis being the latest, most superlative example.
An illustration of a washed-up Ichthyotitan severnensis carcass.
Ichthyosaurs remains are all over Europe.
Indeed, evidence of shastasaurids mainly pops up in their fossilized teeth and vertebrae.
In 2018, a teamdescribed a 205-million-year-old jawbonefrom the same stretch of Somerset, in England.
Paleoart of two I. severnensis swimming.Illustration:Gabriel Ugueto
The blue whale still swims in Earths oceans today, though it is endangered.
Of course, the whale is also a mammal.
Though the I. severnensis size estimate is shy of the blue whales length, it closes the gap.
Lomax et al decided to give the ghost a name, Ichthyotitan, Sander said.
News from the future, delivered to your present.
