Big news! Our study, just out in @Nature, is a game-changer for giant ichthyosaurs! We describe the 1st Temnodontosaurus flipper with fossilized soft tissue, giving us a unique look at how these massive creatures used stealth while hunting in darkness. 1/8 #science #NEWS #Scicomm
The nearly 1m-long front flipper, found in 2009 by Georg Göltz in Dotternhausen, #Germany, is Lower Jurassic in age. It preserves a serrated trailing edge with unique rod-like structures we've named 'chondroderms.' 2/8 #paleontology #biologybreakthrough
Temnodontosaurus was the largest megapredator of the Lower Jurassic (more than 10 m long). The flipper lacks bones at the distal end, which show that the soft-tissue flipper was much longer than the bones indicate. 3/8
This, together with the flipper's wing-like shape and serrated edge, collectively indicates that this morphology helped the massive animal to minimize sound production during swimming. 4/8
Temnodontosaurus had the largest eyes of any vertebrate known, which support the hypothesis that this aquatic reptile hunted under low-light conditions. 5/8
I'm incredibly grateful to the finder, Georg Göltz, for contacting me, allowing its description, and donating this significant specimen to the Palaeontological Museum in Nierstein, Germany. 6/8
Huge thanks also to project leader Johan Lindgren, and my co-author @Dean_R_Lomax, with whom I picked up the specimen from Georg and to @JoschuaKnuppe for the fantastic palaeoart! 7/8
Here’s a link to the publication: https://www.nature.com/article... 8/8