Kyhytysuka’: Newly-discovered Marine Reptile with Unique Name Looks Like a Swordfish

Ateam of Canadian experimenters have discovered an defunct swordfish shaped marine reptile that lived in the water near ultramodern- day Colombia some 130 million times agone. To reach this point, the experimenters at Canada’s McGill University anatomized fossilized remains that were exhumed near Villa de Leyva in Colombia’s Boyacá department back in the 1970s, reported DailyMail. The instance anatomized during the study was said to be an ichthyosaur, a type of marine reptile that lived on Earth 250-90 million ago. The reactionary remains were before classified as rubric platypterygius, a grouping frequently appertained to as a wastebasket and used to classify species that are n’t classified anywhere differently. Still, this new study of the instance’s cranium conducted by the Colombian National Geological Museum in Bogotá revealed that it belonged to a new rubric called “ Kyhytysuka.”

The elaboration of Kyhytysuka happed nearly during the significant period of transition in the early Cretaceous. It was the time when Earth was coming out of a fairly cool period, ocean situations were rising and the supercontinent Pangaea was adhering into two. This was around the time during global extermination when numerous marine and terrestrial got defunct impacting the ecological balance According to the experimenters, the new bracket is going to be veritably helpful in understanding the ichthyosaur family tree and how its members evolved.

Talking about his findings, Hans Larsson, invertebrate palaeontologist of McGill University who led this exploration, said that the reptile had discovered a unique distinction that allowed it to prey on indeed large creatures. This was unlike other ichthyosaurs that generally have small or same size teeth for feeding on lower prey. But this new species had modified its tooth size and developed an magazine of teeth for attacking large prey.

The findings showed that the backset of teeth was short and robust suggesting that they were used to crush prey. The fairly lower eye sockets and direct jawline were seen as an suggestion that the reptile swung in shallow waters.