The dinosaur Ichthyosaurus appears described in Jules Verne's novel Journey to the center of the Earth. In the book, he fights another dinosaur called Plesiosaurus that lived in water and on land, similar to today's seals, and finally gets into a confrontation.
Ichthyosaurus was an exclusively aquatic animal, although initially some researchers believed that it laid its eggs on the ground, outside the water. However, studies have shown that Ichthyosaurus females have adapted to aquatic life as pelagic organisms and never returned to Earth, giving birth to live Cubs, eliminating them with the code swimmer before they drown, through an orifice that occurs in reptiles today, called the cloaca, which also has the role of excreting feces.
This prehistoric animal was considered a dinosaur-fish that in order to live had to breathe on the surface of the water to fill its lungs with air.
Such creatures appeared in the Mesozoic era, in the period of the Lower Jurassic and survived until the end of the Cretaceous.
Based on fossil remains discovered in England, Germany and Alberta (Canada) paleontologists have concluded that there were several species: Ichthyosaurus communis, Ichthyosaurus intermedius, Ichthyosaurus conybeari. In 1818, German paleontologist Charles Koenig made the first detailed description of this dinosaur – which resembles today's Dolphins and Sharks.
It lived in the open sea but also near the coasts. It had an elongated body, a large head, a long muzzle with thin jaws, provided with sharp teeth with deep roots, the nostrils were located close to the orbits, so the animal only slightly raised its head above the water during breathing.
The eyes were unusually large and had the peculiarity of being surrounded by a ring with bone plates, with a protective role, as in turtles or birds of prey today.
The neck of this Ichthyosaurus was extremely short so the head appeared to be tied directly to the body. The spine was relatively long, consisting of 150 vertebrae, the tail being made up of 80 of them. The dorsal fin was made up of two lobes, the dorsal fin had a triangular shape, and the ventral and pectoral fins were developed, but they did not serve for walking on land, but only for swimming.
In the water, the Ichthyosaurus swam at high speed, moving the cod fin with power, and the rest of the flippers served as its rudder. According to the researchers the length of an adult Ichthyosaurus reached 2 m and weight of 90 kg.
Ichthyosaurus Food
Ichthyosaurus fed on fish, cephalopods and mollusks.
