Re: Ichthyosaur Article In Science News

["Steve Brusatte" <dinoland@lycos.com>]

On Mon, 26 Aug 2002 08:59:19  
 Richard W Travsky wrote:
>
>Nice cover too:    http://www.sciencenews.org/20020824/cover.jpg
>
>http://www.sciencenews.org/20020824/bob10.asp
>
>Coupla excerpts:

>Many people, when asked to name the largest prehistoric predator,
>immediately think of Tyrannosaurus rex. Think again. Although some
>land-dwelling relatives of T. rex actually were slightly longer than the
>tyrant lizard king, a soon-to-be-described ichthyosaur dwarfs them all.
>Even a small member of the new species would have matched the size of a
>typical blue whale, the largest vertebrate swimming in today's oceans. 
>...
>The creature's almost complete preservation enables the paleontologists
>to confidently peg the ichthyosaur's length at 23 m. The skull alone was
>5.8 m long, and each broad, tapered flipper was 5.3 m long. The largest of
>the creature's hockey-puck-shaped vertebrae is 27 cm across. The
>researchers intend to publish their description of the new species next
>year, says Nicholls. 

Really?  My big mammal encyclopedia is buried under a stack of books, but I 
seem to recall that average blue whales reach sizes of 90-100 feet (27-30 
meters or so).  Saying that even a small member of this new species would have 
"matched" a blue whale might be stretching it.  

However, this does appear to be a really interesting specimen.  The largest 
ichthyosaur that I know of is _Shonisaurus_, which is said to reach lengths of 
about 15 meters, although the known fossil material is fairly scrappy (I don't 
know if a complete or near-complete specimen has ever been found).  I'll have 
to patiently w4tp.

Steve

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