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FOUnder the Sea!
#Scheenstia (=#Lepidotes) maximus is a German #fish related to #gar that reached up to 6’ and ~200 lbs. Its teeth are blunt and at once recognizable. It is thought to have picked hard-shelled prey off the sea floor.
The teeth were called toadstones and believed to have magical powers in the Middle Ages. Today they still have powers, as their uniqueness leads to them being enjoyed by collectors. This giant original bone specimen is on display at the Museum of Ancient Life in Lehi, Utah.
#Keichousaurus is a #sauropterygian, a kind of marine #reptile, that lived in the #Triassix of China. A #pachypleurosaurian, it was but a few inches long and is cute as a button with delicate paddles and adorable neck and tail and resemble an aquatic sauropod in a way :-)! They gave birth to live young, like so many aquatic reptiles do, and died by the thousands via anoxic events.
#Opthalmosaurus lived in the #Jurassic of Europe and reached ~14’ and ~1 ton! They had the largest vertebrate eye-to-skull proportions afaik. *Inside* the #ichthyosaur eye is the #scleroticring, a series of tiny interlocking bones.
Why bones in the eye? Likely to help maintain spherical trueness so it could leverage those huge eyes in an environ with everchanging pressures. Why huge eyes in the first place? Animals with gigantic peepers today hunt in low light, think massive #owl #eyes. I’m always looking for the lowest-light lens possible (my current best is F/1.2), and Opthalmo’s eye likely put that to shame, reaching perhaps F/0.8, “see in the dark” territory.
Large-eyed #ichthyosaurs could dive deep for their #cephalopod prey, though #sushi was on the menu for some.
Being #reptiles, they breathed air so had to come to the surface every few mins like #dolphins. They gave birth to live young as evidenced by numerous specimens with babies inside them, which seem to have been born tail-first to prevent drowning.
Ichthyosaurs are among some of the best-preserved fossils, with blubber, cholesterol (!), blood cells, and scales known. They may have been counter-shaded thanks to specimens that seem to preserve chromatophores.
#FossilCrates #FossilFriday
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