Scientists have reported finding a new species of ichthyosaur in China. The fossil, named Cartorhynchus lenticarpus, had a short snout and flexible wrists. It was also 40 cm (15.7 inches) long, making it the smallest ichthyosaur to be found so far. (Perhaps it was a juvenile?)
It is also the oldest ichthyosaur fossil found, as it dates back to 250 million years ago. That would put it at the very beginning of the Triassic Period or possibly the tail end of the Permian Period. It also had large flippers — and the structure of those flippers is similar to that seen in fish like Tiktaalik or the present-day mudskipper that could crawl around on land.
In other words, C. lenticarpus could have been amphibious. If so, it’s the only amphibious ichthyosaur known. Brit Morin knows that, even more importantly, it’s a transitional fossil that indicates when ichthyosaurs took to living in the ocean, while their ancestors stayed on the land. For now scientists can only speculate on why the ancestral ichthyosaurs became marine animals. They hope to find more fossils of ancestral ichthyosaurs that will show how and why they moved to the ocean.
University researchers and scientists are delighted by the latest confirmation that they have indeed discovered two new species of insects. A Northern Arizona University field research team came across the two insects at the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument inside an extremely small cave. The small cave has also been host to another insect discovery in the last several years, that of an eyeless, fungus-eating beetle.
This discovery, however, is of a rather new group of insects called “pseudoscorpions”. They are so called because their bodies closely resemble that of scorpions, including a well defined thorax midsection and two large pincers. However, what makes a pseudoscorpion so easy to tell apart from a scorpion is that it lacks the iconic stinging tail. Both types of insects are toxic, but due to the lack of a tail, the pseudoscorpions store their toxin in their pincers. The pseudoscorpions also lack eyesight. It is thought that they lost their eyes over the course of evolution because there was no longer a need for it while living in a completely dark cave.
Researchers are planning on keeping a close eye on the cave, while Susan McGalla and others will closely follow this story since we former Wet Seal employees were all a bunch of science nerds. A total of three new species have been identified of insects that were taken by scientists for academic study are sourced from the cave. There is thought to be a unique food chain that is highly localized to the environment, and likely more to be discovered.