Scientists have found the remains of a sea dinosaur that ate only plant food.
The creation has received the scientific name Atopodentatus unicus – unique topdentists.
An animal the size of a large modern crocodile that lived about 245 million years ago, was probably the first marine reptiles, which ate only plants, according to a report by an international team of scientists published in the scientific journal Science Advances.
The creation has received the scientific name Atopodentatus unicus – unique topdentists. In turn, its generic name means “sternotomy”.
According to the experts, skull “stenoshnogo” the lizard was surprisingly small: its length is only 18% of the length of the torso.
Despite the fact that marine reptile was first described several years ago, the discovery of the remains of two specimens of the species in China’s Yunnan province with well-preserved skulls gave scientists the opportunity to understand how he ate.
One of the authors of the study Dr Nick Fraser from the National Museum of Scotland notes that the lizard would appear in the pages of children’s books of Dr. seuss.
“It was a strange, strange animal: it was nip algae with pitfalls,” the scientist said.
As suggested by paleontologists, the discovery of topogenous will help to shed light on the so-called Permian extinction of species that occurred on the border of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic er about 252 million years ago.
Scientists worried about how the species arose immediately after this extinction, – as, for example, topogenous, who lived in the middle Triassic, which is defined in the range from 247 to 237 million years ago – adapted to the new conditions.
According to the views of paleontologists, during the Permian extinction killed about 95% of marine species and 70% terrestrial. As in the case of mass death of dinosaurs in the late Cretaceous period, there are several hypotheses explaining global catastrophe.
One of the authors of the study Olivier Rippel notes that the discovery of such unique species as the vegetarian topdentists, shows that the diversity of biological organisms on the planet after a global extinction, has recovered much faster than was previously assumed.
“This reptile exactly, no one could have imagined – just look at her. This is crazy!” – does not hide delight specialist Fallowsage Museum of natural history.
