Ichthyosaur discoveries continued to be made into the 20th century. Evidence for live birth in ichthyosaurs dates back as far as 1846, when Chaning Pierce reported an apparent fossil Ichthyosaurus embryo to Sir Richard Owen. Scientists came to realize that ichthyosaurs were too adapted to leave the water even to lay eggs. This bend was so common, however, that scholars eventually realized that it was natural and supported a shark-like tail fin. Although a bend in ichthyosaurs' tail vertebrae was seen from the earliest specimens, scholars assumed the bend reflected damage incurred to the animal's carcass after death. They were frequently portrayed as leaving the water to bask on rocks and with straight tails. Įarly researchers recognized ichthyosaurs as marine reptiles, but major aspects of their anatomy and behavior needed to be resolved. His sister Mary would later find the rest of its skeleton and would go on to become a respected fossil collector and paleontologist in her own right. In 1811, a boy named Joseph Anning discovered the first ichthyosaur fossils that would come to be scientifically recognized as such. At that time, a scholar named Edward Lhwyd published a book on British fossils that misattributed some ichthyosaur vertebrae to actual fishes their true nature was not recognized until the 19th century. Scientists have documented ichthyosaur fossils at least as far back as the late 17th century. This timeline of ichthyosaur research is a chronological listing of events in the history of paleontology focused on the ichthyosauromorphs, a group of secondarily aquatic marine reptiles whose later members superficially resembled dolphins, sharks, or swordfish. See our wiki for past AMAs.Artist's restoration of a school of Grendelius If you would like to mask a potential spoiler, use the following format: (/spoiler)Īll times in ET (EST/EDT) unless otherwise noted.

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Eat Them Alive by Pierce Nace