(Image credit: 10tons/Musée national d'histoire naturelle de Luxembourg)
Live Science has a story about a "megapredator" of the Jurassic. The new pliosaur species, Lorrainosaurus, lived about 170 million years ago. Pliosaurs ruled the oceans during the Jurassic. This animal was found in the former region of Lorraine (now part of Grand Est) in northeastern France. A paper in the journal Scientific Reports reexamined the fossils that were first described in 1994.
A newfound member of a "dynasty" of pliosaur megapredators was at the top of the ocean food chain for 80 million years, a new study reveals.
The newly described sea monster, named Lorrainosaurus, was a Jurassic (201 million to 145 million years ago) giant with a 4.3-foot-long (1.3 meters) jaw and torpedo-shaped body from the clade of pliosaurs called Thalassophonea, or "sea murderers."
Scientists first unearthed this sea monster's fossils in 1983. But in a new study, published Oct. 16 in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers re-analyzed the remains and found that the predator belonged to a previously unknown genus (group) of species and represented the oldest "megapredatory" pliosaur on record, according to a statement the authors sent to Live Science.