About 250 million Years Ago, an ancient marine reptile covered in bony armor inhabited the waters of what is now South China. Its discovery may rewrite our understanding of reptile evolution.
Fossils of the new species were first discovered in 2019 at a quarry in China’s Hubei province. The animal has been named Prosaurosphargis yingzishanensis.
It belonged to the family Saurosphargidae, a small group of armored aquatic Reptiles with broadened dorsal fins that gave them a stockier appearance in comparison to other marine reptiles.
P. yingzishanensis was approximately five feet in total body length and was covered with osteoderms, which are bony scales and plates that sat in its skin. Osteoderms are found in many living animals and extinct creatures.
This giant sea lizard is thought to be one of the biggest reptiles of its time and predates the Saurosphargids that have been previously found. Before, the oldest saurosphargids dated back to about 245 million years ago during the mid-Triassic period.
It is unclear to scientists whether P. yingzishanensis is an ancestral relative of these saurosphargids or if they are from a separate lineage altogether. However, the anatomical features of the new species indicate that the whole group of saurosphargids may have been misclassified.
For a long time, saurosphargids have been considered a sister family of the sauropterygians, which consists of a more diverse group of extinct marine reptiles. A study of the recently discovered species noted that there were many similarities between the two groups.
This suggests that they are more closely related than previously thought. As a result, researchers are pushing for the saurosphargids to be classified as a subgroup of sauropterygians instead of a sister group.
Additionally, this has led scientists to believe that sauropterygians are more closely related to the Archelosauria family than previously thought. This group includes both living and extinct turtles, crocodilian creatures, and birds.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
Aside from the birds, the animals within all these groups had some form of body armor, suggesting that bony plating was key to their survival in habitats of shallow water. Their body armor not only provided protection from predators but also helped give them enough weight to sink down to the seafloor to forage for prey.
Researchers hope that more information will be found in the same area the P. yingzishanensis was in order to fill in the remaining gaps in the evolutionary history of ancient reptiles.
If true crime defines your free time, this is for you: join Chip Chick’s True Crime Tribe
Legend Has It That She Haunts The Golden Gate Park, And You Shouldn’t Be Anywhere Near Stow Lake At Night
She Walked Out Of A First Date After A Guy Berated Her For Not Wanting To Have Kids
She Got Up And Left Her Own Wedding In Tears After Her Parents Humiliated Her During Their Speech
She’s Worried That Her Preschooler Son Is Showing Psychopathic Signs
In 1977, She Left Her New Job At A Law Firm To Run Some Errands During Her Lunch Break And Was Never Seen Or Heard From Again
Want To Deer-Proof Your Garden? Here Are 10 Shrubs That Deer Won’t Dine On
She Wrote The Beloved Childhood Story “The Tale Of Peter Rabbit,” And Worldwide, Over 250 Million Copies Of This Classic Have Been Sold
