True Monster of the Deep

200 million years ago much of the dry land on earth was gathered into a supercontinent called Pangaea. The waters surrounding it could be called a superocean. This vast body of water has been named Panthalassa. A big ocean deserves a big reptile and, sure enough, it was the home of the Ichthyosaur. Some of these creatures were vast bodies themselves. The bones of a giant ichthyosaur unearthed in Canada lately add up to the largest marine reptile ever found, like an articulated truck … with fins.


Note the scale of the person in the image. However not every species of Ichthyosaur reached the monstrous size of this example.

Big eyes indicate Ichthyosaurs were probably deep divers, used to being deep in the dark sea. They probably ate squid, shellfish and other reptiles and were at swim for around 150 million years. That is a long time by any standard, therefore we can say they must have had a wide-ranging diet. One sure way for a species to die off fast is to focus on only one type of food and refuse to eat anything else. If your source of food disappears then you are bound to follow. The Ichthyosaur was not fussy and the giant Ichthyosaur in particular was able to eat virtually anything it meet. Few of us would not like to meet one when going for a swim.

A set of fossils from the United States adds more to our vision of this awesome predator. In Nevada dozens of Ichthyosaurs were found fossilised together. They were all pointed in the same direction and this has lead some to suggest that the creatures went about in pods, like dolphins do today. Imagine a dozen of these giants swimming at you through the blue Panthalassa.