🐬Ichthyosaurs

Dolphin-shaped sea reptiles

Diapsida › Ichthyosauromorpha › Ichthyosauria

🚫 Not dinosaurs

Ichthyosaurs were sea reptiles shaped a lot like dolphins. They had giant eyes and swam fast to catch fish and squid. They lived in the ocean, but they were not dinosaurs.

Ichthyosaurs ("fish lizards") are marine reptiles that appeared in the Early Triassic, around 248 million years ago, and died out about 90 million years ago, well before the end-Cretaceous extinction. Their land-living ancestors evolved a fish-like body shape independently of sharks and dolphins, a classic example of convergent evolution. Fossils of mothers with babies, some caught in the middle of birth, show they gave birth to live young, and exceptionally preserved specimens reveal a dorsal fin, a tail fluke and even dark skin pigment. Ophthalmosaurus had eyes more than 20 cm across, and Triassic giants such as Shonisaurus and Shastasaurus grew to around 15–20 metres or more. Their exact place in the reptile family tree is still debated.