A sea monster that lived during the early days of the dinosaurs was incredibly large, revealing evolutionary secrets.

In ancient times, many creatures on land and in water chose to evolve to increasingly larger sizes to avoid becoming “prey”, as well as survive more effectively with abundant food sources.

Image depicting ichthyosaurs sea monsters. (PH๏τo: National Geographic)

Recent research from archaeologists confirms that fish-like marine reptiles grew to enormous sizes in a period of just 2.5 million years. By comparison, it took whales about 90% of their 55 million year history to reach the enormous size that ichthyosaurs (a subfamily of marine reptiles) did.

“Ichthyosaurs evolved much faster than whales, at a time when the world was recovering from the devastating extinction at the end of the Permian period ,” said Lars Schmitz, a senior researcher at Scripps College.

“It’s a nice ray of hope and a sign of the resilience of life – if the environmental conditions are right, evolution can happen very quickly and life can recover.”

Researchers first noticed the fossil of an ancient ichthyosaur discovered in 1998, in the Augusta Mountains, northwestern Nevada (USA).

But it was not until 2015, with the help of specialized helicopters, that they were able to excavate all remaining fossils including skulls, shoulders… and transport them to the Natural History Museum. Los Angeles, where it was analyzed.

Skull size of the ancient reptile C. youngorum compared to an adult human. (PH๏τo: AP).

According to a study published on December 23 in the journal Science, the team named this new species Cymbospondylus youngorum (C. youngorum).

They belong to the subfamily of large-jawed marine reptiles, living 247 million years ago in the Triᴀssic period, with elongated bodies and limbs modified into fins and a tail.

There were many giant animals that lived during the age of the dinosaurs, but C. youngorum stands out for a number of reasons. Typically, they are rare, large creatures that survived about 5 million years after the mᴀss extinction event 252 million years ago at the end of the Permian period, which killed about 90% of species on Earth. .

According to studies, it took about 9 million years for life on Earth to recover after the above extinction event. However, somehow, C. youngorum still survives and thrives.

C. youngorum miraculously survived and developed post-extinction.

One hypothesis is that there was a burst of diversification in marine molluscs called ammonoids within 1 million to 3 million years after the mᴀss extinction event.

It was these species that became the food source for C. youngorum, as well as modern whales. However, the way they evolve and develop is different.

“The new fossil shows impressive evolution to giant size in ichthyosaurs. In contrast, whales seem to have followed a different path to their current size, but not as quickly,” said Schmitz . Evaluate.