Scientists have found out the largest animal that has ever lived in the ocean. New research has discovered that the animal was a Triassic period predator. Researchers have found out a 244-million-year-old fossil of the animal. This species has rivalled current cetaceans. The new found animal is an ichthyosaur. This species existed 8 million years after the first ichthyosaurs. Scientists think that because of its size, it is an evaluated version of the first ichthyosaurs.
This ichthyosaur evaluated fast
The new study has been published in the journal Science. The research paper revealed the discovery of the fossil. The scientists think that the ichthyosaur that they found had a nearly two-meter-long skull. They also think that this is a completely new species named Cymbospondylus.
Scientists said this was the largest tetrapod in the Triassic period. This species also one of the them who had ruled the ocean. Scientists said it can also grow in size by eating ammonoids. Ammonoids have helped this tetrapod to grow faster. Scientists also believe this species have evolved earlier than whales.
Deep analysis
There are a lot of information that we do not know about the evolution of marine species. Scientists will be able to learn a lot of new things from their new discovery. They will learn more about the specific way in which the marine life evolved. The fossil will help to give us insights about the facts that we did not explore before.
The scientists think that the environment of that time period may have permitted species to grow that big. There can be other species too with the same size out there, waiting to be explore. The abundance of ammonoids have also helped ichthyosaur to grow big in a short period of time after its origin.
