Paleontological Society of Auskn Huge Eyes Flippers Convergence

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Paleontological Society of Auskn Huge Eyes Flippers Convergence ICHTHYOSAURS ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Paleontological Society of Ausn ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Ichthyosaurs (Greek for "fish lizard") were large marine rep=les that thrived during much of the Mesozoic era; based on fossil Shastasaurus sikanniensis evidence, they first appeared approximately 250 million years ago (MYA) and at least one species survived un=l about ninety MYA, into the Late Cretaceous. There are more than 50 Ichthyosaur genera and they varied in size from 3 to over 55 feet in length. (Genera is a way biologists group Shastasaurus liangae similar species together. It is the first part of a species name. The picture to the lek shows three different species, but they are all of the genus Shastasaurus.) During the early Triassic Period, ichthyosaurs evolved from a group of uniden=fied land rep=les that returned to the sea, in a 2 development parallel to that of the ancestors of modern-day dolphins and whales. They were par=cularly abundant in the later Triassic and early Jurassic Period, un=l they were replaced as the top aquac predators by Shastasaurus pacificus another marine rep=lian group, the plesiosaurs in the later Jurassic and Cretaceous Period. In the Late Cretaceous Relave Body Size Relave Eye Size Huge Eyes ichthyosaurs became ex=nct for unknown . Human At up to 40 feet in length, reasons. 1 Porpoise Temnodontosaurus had Horse eyes 10 inches in Elephant diameter – the largest known eyes in the history Blue Whale of life. Their huge eyes Platypterigius allowed them to pursue kiprjanov 3 Opthalmosaurus prey in ocean’s dark depths 4 Giant Squid Platypterigius species have been found in Texas. Ichthyosaur parts including vertebrae and teeth have even been found in Travis County. Temnodontosaurus Ichthyosaur 5 They lived in Texas during the early Cretaceous Period, around 100-110 million years ago. Convergence Flippers The ul=mate resemblance Ichthyosaurs probably used their forefins (front flippers) to of ichthyosaurs to dolphins and maneuver during swimming, as in living fishes, dolphins and whales is a clear case of convergent whales. The limb skeletons went through a dras=c modificaon evolu=on, the independent as ichthyosaurs evolved. You can clearly see it by plong the evolu=on of similar features in shape of the forefin skeleton along the family tree of species of different animals. White-sided ichthyosaurs, as in the figure below. Convergent evolu=on creates Dolphin 6 structures with similar form or Petrolacosaurus Mixosaurus Macgowania Brachypterygius func=on, but that were not present Utatsusaurus Toretocnemus Stenopterygius in the last common ancestor of upper those groups. 1 Mary Anning (1799 – 1847) was an English arm fossil collector, dealer, and paleontologist. She is lower known for important finds along the English arm Channel at Lyme Regis in Southwest England. Her discoveries included the first ichthyosaur hand skeleton correctly iden=fied and the first two plesiosaur skeletons found. Her family was poor. Even as a young girl she worked to help support 4 No Thumb them. Despite this, she became well known in Ichthyosaurs geological circles in Britain, Europe, and America. Nonetheless, as a woman, she was not eligible to We can make the following observaons about the evolu=on of join the Geological Society of London and she did forefin skeletons in ichthyosaurs: (1) The lower arm bones not always receive full credit for her scien=fic became shorter and shorter along the family tree, although contribu=ons. Finally, in 2010, one hundred and there are excep=ons; (2) The finger bones also became shorter sixty-three years aer her death, the Royal and shorter, and eventually became disk-shaped; (3) The Society included Anning in a list of the ten Bri=sh number of finger bones increased early in the evolu=on; (4) The women who have most influenced the history of thumb disappeared at one point, and then addi=onal digits science. 1 (light blue) appeared on both sides of the remaining fingers. 4 Ichthyosaur Poster by the Paleontological Society of Aus=n, licensed under Creave Commons ABribu=on-ShareAlike 4.0 License. See individual restric=ons below. Created November 2015 by Michael K. Smith, msmith17@aus=n.rr.com. The text and images above comes primarily from Wikipedia. We cite the page, the date, and the license (if appropriate) with the original creator. Abbreviaons used - W = "hBps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki". WC = "hBps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:". 1. W/Ichthyosaur (Oct. 23, 2015) . CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported. 2. WC/Shastasaurus_chartDB15_2.jpg (23 Oct 2015). CC BY-SA 4.0, DiBdg. 3. WC/Platypterigius kiprjanov2.jpg (25 Oct 2015). CC BY 3.0, Dmitry Bogdanov. 4. Adapted from hBp://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/people/motani/ichthyo/, Ryosuke Motani. Used by permission. 5. From hBps://openclipart.org/detail/227046/ichthyosaurus-skeleton. Public Domain, by Firkin. 6. WC/White-sided_dolphin.jpg (23 Oct 2015), CC 1.0, Skimsta. .
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