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Fish and Aquatic Life

Researchers discover skull of deadly, fast swordfish-like reptile with a 3-foot-long skull

A team of international researchers announced the discovery of a marine reptile closely resembling a swordfish with a 3-foot-long skull that existed more than 100 million years ago.

The preserved skull is of the ichthyosaur, which means "fish lizard." They closely resembled porpoises and grew up to 10 feet long. They aren't technically dinosaurs, and with their paddle-like fins, they were among the fastest creatures in the ocean.

The species first appeared during the Triassic period about 250 million years ago but went extinct during the Cretaceous period, millions of years before dinosaurs vanished about 65 million years ago, according to Britannica.

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The newly discovered creature, named Kyhytysuka, first appeared about 250 million years ago and vanished millions of years before the dinosaurs went extinct.

Despite the creatures' long nose and mouth, it has long been thought the species fed only on small fish and other small sea creatures. But the skull discovery shows the species evolved into becoming a fearsome creature that was able to take on nearly any prey it wanted to. The team of researchers had their findings recently published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.

"Its skull and dentition were highly adapted for eating really large prey, and that's in contrast to most other ichthyosaurs that instead had small teeth in delicate skulls for eating small fish and other relatively small and soft prey," Hans Larsson, director of the Redpath Museum at McGill University, said in an email to USA TODAY. "This is pretty large for its time and puts it near the top of its ancient ecosystem food chain."

The newly discovered creature was named Kyhytysuka, which comes from the indigenous language of the Muisca, a native tribe of central Colombia, where the fossil was found, according to Dirley Cortés, a graduate student of Larsson. The name translates to "the one that cuts with something sharp."

Larsson added that the skull came from one of the last surviving ichthyosaurs during "a very interesting time in Earth's history."

Estimations show the skull is about 130 million years old, meaning it came from the early part of the Cretaceous period, not long after a mini-global extinction at the end of the Jurassic period resulting in the loss of 80% of all species, according to National Geographic. This resulted in global temperatures and sea levels rising and surviving species to evolve.

The preserved skull was discovered in central Colombia and is estimated to be about 130 million years old.

Researchers say the discovery allows them to learn more about how and why the ichthyosaurs evolved. The skull came from rocks that also contained the fossils of the apex predator, the long-necked plesiosaurs, as well as turtles that resemble modern sea turtles. Larsson added that the discovery helps scientists understand the marine food web at the time.

Follow Jordan Mendoza on Twitter: @jordan_mendoza5.

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