A terrifying skeleton revealed on a cliff in Yunnan Province, China has been identified as a completely new marine monster that lived 245 million years ago.
According to Sci-News, the fairly well-preserved fossil skeleton of this new marine creature was discovered in an abandoned quarry in Luozehe County, Yunnan Province, China.
The research team, led by Dr. Jun Liu from Hefei University of Technology (China), determined that it belongs to a species previously unknown, which lived 245 million years ago, during the Triassic period.
New marine monster skeleton revealed on rock in China – (Photo: Swiss Journal of Palaeontology).
The article published in the Swiss Journal of Palaeontology states that the new species, named Dianmeisaurus mutaensis, belongs to the extinct clade of reptiles known as Pachypleurosaur, which is part of the order Sauropterygia.
This lineage evolved from terrestrial ancestors immediately after the Great Permian Extinction over 251 million years ago.
Members of this marine monster group resemble lizards, featuring small heads, long necks, paddle-like limbs, and long tails.
“Sauropterygia is the most diverse clade among marine reptiles of the Mesozoic Era, including the iconic Plesiosauria from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, as well as the Placodontia and Eosauropterygia groups from the Triassic,” Dr. Liu noted.
The skeleton of this unusual creature is preserved in dark gray micritic limestone, with most of its body remaining in the position it was in when it died.
This fossil also indicates an overall length of just 99.2 mm, suggesting it was quite small. However, this size is not unusual in the reptile world of that era.
This creature lived millions of years before the earliest ancestors of dinosaurs appeared, which were also relatively small.
It was not until the Jurassic period and the subsequent Cretaceous period that marine monsters entered a prosperous era, becoming more diverse and larger than their primitive counterparts.
The phylogenetic study of Dianmeisaurus mutaensis reveals its relationship with several known marine monsters in the region, providing further evidence indicating the origin of the Pachypleurosaur group in the eastern part of the ancient Tethys Ocean.
The Tethys Ocean was located between the two supercontinents of Laurasia and Gondwana, forming around 250 million years ago and “ending its existence” about 200 million years ago, when the supercontinents broke apart into multiple continents, reshaping the world map as we know it today.
