British researchers have identified a new species of prehistoric marine reptile from the family of ichthyosaurs, the “Dorset sword dragon”, announced on Friday the University of Manchester.
The almost complete skeleton of this animal, discovered in 2001 by a collector near Golden Cap, a cliff located on the “Jurassic Coast” of the county of Dorset, had not been formally identified until now.
Dorset is a region in southern England known for its numerous fossils of dinosaurs.
This ichthyosaur, “the size of a dolphin”, whose scientific name is Xiphodracon goldencapensis, or “Dorset sword dragon”, is “the only known specimen of its species and helps fill an important gap” in the understanding of the evolution of ichthyosaurs over time, explained in a statement the University of Manchester, where paleontologist Dean Lomax, one of the three researchers responsible for the discovery.
The skeleton, which belongs to the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada, includes a skull with a huge orbit (eye) and a long sword-shaped snout.
The researchers, whose research was published Friday in the journal Papers of Palaeontology, estimate that the animal was about three meters long and fed on fish and squid.
Scientists believe that it is probably the most complete prehistoric marine reptile in the world corresponding to the Pliensbachian age, a stage of the Early Jurassic that took place between 192 and 184 million years ago.
“I remember seeing this skeleton for the first time in 2016. At the time, I knew it was unusual, but I didn’t expect it to play such a crucial role in filling a gap in our understanding of complex faunal change during the Pliensbachian,” Professor Lomax explained.
Xiphodracon is what could be called “a missing piece in the ichthyosaur puzzle,” between the species that disappeared at the beginning of that period and those that appeared later, the researcher added.