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Evidence Supporting Predation of 4-m Marine Reptile by Triassic Megapredator.

ABSTRACT: Air-breathing marine predators have been essential components of the marine ecosystem since the Triassic. Many of them are considered the apex predators but without direct evidence-dietary inferences are usually based on circumstantial evidence, such as tooth shape. Here we report a fossil that likely represents the oldest evidence for predation on megafauna, i.e., animals equal to or larger than humans, by marine tetrapods-a thalattosaur (?4 m in total length) in the stomach of a Middle Triassic ichthyosaur (?5 m). The predator has grasping teeth yet swallowed the body trunk of the prey in one to several pieces. There were many more Mesozoic marine reptiles with similar grasping teeth, so megafaunal predation was likely more widespread than presently conceived. Megafaunal predation probably started nearly simultaneously in multiple lineages of marine reptiles in the Illyrian (about 242-243 million years ago).

SUBMITTER: Jiang DY

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7520894 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Evidence Supporting Predation of 4-m Marine Reptile by Triassic Megapredator.

Jiang Da-Yong DY Motani Ryosuke R Tintori Andrea A Rieppel Olivier O Ji Cheng C Zhou Min M Wang Xue X Lu Hao H Li Zhi-Guang ZG

iScience 20200820 9

Air-breathing marine predators have been essential components of the marine ecosystem since the Triassic. Many of them are considered the apex predators but without direct evidence-dietary inferences are usually based on circumstantial evidence, such as tooth shape. Here we report a fossil that likely represents the oldest evidence for predation on megafauna, i.e., animals equal to or larger than humans, by marine tetrapods-a thalattosaur (∼4 m in total length) in the stomach of a Middle Triassi ...[more]

PMID: 32822565

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Dataset Information

Evidence Supporting Predation of 4-m Marine Reptile by Triassic Megapredator.

Publications

Evidence Supporting Predation of 4-m Marine Reptile by Triassic Megapredator.

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