Fossil Discovery

A newly-classified fossil suggests that marine life evolved quickly following a mass extinction that took place 250 million years ago.

11:14 27 May 2016

A newly-classified fossil of a reptile that is relative of the ichthyosaurs suggests that marine reptiles evolved quickly after a mass extinction that took place 250 million years ago. This contradicts previous evidence that suggested it took a long time for animal in the seas to bounce back.

 

Details about the specimen, Sclerocormus parviceps, were published in Scientific Reports.

 

Dr Nick Fraser, Keeper of Natural Sciences at National Museums Scotland, worked on the fossil alongside teams in the US and China, said: "Here's something that gives us a sense of the evolutionary pathway," said Dr Fraser.

 

"We've still got a long way to go to see where the ichthyosaurs came from, however it's a step in the right direction.

 

"And it all points to a very rapid radiation after this mass extinction - this mother of all extinctions at the end of the Permian, which had a major impact on the Earth."

 

Co-researcher Dr Olivier Rieppel of The Field Museum in Chicago, added: "We don't have many marine reptile fossils from this period, so this specimen is important because it suggests that there's diversity that hasn't been uncovered yet.”

 

"These ichthyosauriforms (ichythyosaurs and close relatives) seem to have evolved very quickly, in short bursts of lots of change, in leaps and bounds."