Triassic Ocean Terrorized Sea Monster & # 39; the size of a car

A new study reveals that a crocodile-like beast looks like prey terrorized by a Volkswagen ladybug at the end of the Triassic, about 210 million years ago.

The researchers have uncovered the remains of four of these sea monsters that have disappeared today on the rocky slopes of the Austrian Alps. But even at 4 meters long, these creatures – known as phytosaurs – were not fully developed.

Phytosaurs were only 8 years old when they died, and they were "still growing," according to a bone analysis, said lead researcher Richard Butler, professor of paleobiology at the University of Birmingham, UK. [Photos: Early Dinosaur Cousin Looked Like a Croc]

Given the difficulty in uncovering these fossils, it is remarkable that this new species – nicknamed Mystriosuchus steinbergeri – is finally introduced to science. His name honors Sepp Steinberger, a member of a local caving club, who discovered fossils by climbing the "dead mountains", a remote area of ​​the Austrian Alps, in 1980. A team from the Natural History Museum Two years later, it was necessary to use a helicopter to transport the fossils over the mountain, which was almost 2 km high.

The museum cleaned up the fossils and exposed them. But "because there are very few specialists in the phytosaurs – this particular group of fossil reptiles – it took many years to study them," Butler told Live Science. Finally, in 2013, a team of British, French, Austrian and Swiss researchers began to examine the ancient remains.

The phytosaurs resemble a mixture of modern crocodile, alligator and gharial, although they have lived long before these animals and that they are not particularly close relatives of them, Butler said. "This is an example of" evolutionary convergence "in which remote groups evolve to look alike because they live in similar environments," he said.

<Img class = "lazy pure-img" src = great "https://img.purch.com/h/1400/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5saXZlc2NpZW5jZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzEwNS82MDgvb3JpZ2luYWwvTXlzdHJpb3N1Y2h1cy1pbGx1c3RyYXRpb24uanBnPzE1NTc1MjQwMjk=" data-src = "https://img.purch.com/w/640 a0cL Mystriosuchus steinbergeri, a beast resembling a crocodile that lived 210 million years ago in what is now Austria. “/>

The phytosaur is a semi-aquatic reptile whose remains are usually found near lakes and freshwater rivers. (Although he lived at the beginning of the dinosaur, the phytosaur is not a dinosaur.) However, these particular fossils were found in sediments of an ancient ocean environment, tens of kilometers from the Triassic shoreline.

It is unlikely that these four phytosaurs died on Earth and were later washed away, Butler said. "Therefore, we believe this provides the best evidence to date to support the idea that some phytosaurs lived in marine environments," he said.

This new species, as well as fossils of some other specimens of phytosaurs discovered over the years in marine deposits, suggests that some of these animals could live, or at least cross, saltwater environments, indicated the researchers.

The study was published online May 8 in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

Originally published on Science live.