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Re: Ichthyosaur Article In Science News

I had the very same doubts when I quickly scanned the article, but then I came across this paragraph:
"Even though this specimen's length easily tops the previous record for ichthyosaurs--held by a 15-m-long /Shonisaurus/--there's evidence that its relatives got much larger. Isolated fossil vertebrae of other animals from the same species, taken from this site and others in British Columbia, are 36 cm across. Without knowing which part of the ichthyosaur's spine these isolated bones came from, the length of the animal that grew those bones can't be estimated, Nicholls says."

I made a quick calculation through extrapolation from the largest vertebrae (27cm) of the complete specimen and assuming that 36cm vertebrae are the largest for this species, we could possibly be looking at 100-foot individuals. That is definitely within blue whale territory at least in length. I haven't looked at a picture of a blue whale recently, but I remember these animals being somewhat bulkier than your typical Ichthyosaur. The blue whale will probably still hold the crown for the heaviest animal known to ever exist, providing nothing more collosal than has hitherto been unearthed in Argentina comes to light.

James

Steve Brusatte wrote:

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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