Dino card No. 0246 of 2,027

Barracudasaurus

Say it: buh-RAK-uh-dah-SORE-us

Name means: “barracuda lizard”1

Ate: MeatIchthyosaursMiddle TriassicNot technically a dinosaur

Barracudasaurus was an ancient marine reptile that swam in the seas during the Middle Triassic, about 247 to 237 million years ago. It looked a bit like a dolphin with a long snout and sharp teeth, and it was a fast hunter. Even though its name means 'barracuda lizard', it was not a dinosaur but an ichthyosaur.2 1

Fun fact: this sea reptile swam while dinosaurs walked on land. Everyone calls them dinos, but they were a different branch of reptiles.

Lived

247 to 237 million years ago2

Middle Triassic

Fossils found in

Guizhou Province, China2 1

Food

Meat2 1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Barracudasaurus is one of the oldest known mixosaurid ichthyosaurs, a group of early ichthyosaurs.1

Its skull had a deep notch between the jugal and quadratojugal bones, which stayed separated on the outside.1

The back teeth of Barracudasaurus were wider and blunter than the front teeth, perfect for crunching hard prey.1

Scientists think Barracudasaurus might have evolved in the eastern part of the ancient Tethys Ocean, not the west as earlier believed.1

Only two fossils of Barracudasaurus have been found, both in the Guanling Formation of China.2

Barracudasaurus was named in 2005 by a team of scientists from China and Germany.2 1

AI-made picture of Barracudasaurus — An AI-made picture of how Barracudasaurus might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Barracudasaurus
Named by: Jiang et al. 20052
Group: Ichthyosaurs
Family / clade: Mixosauridae2
Classification: Ichthyosauria > Ichthyosauromorpha2
Age of the rocks: 247 to 237 million years ()2
Rock formations: Guanling2
Countries: China2
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Barracudasaurus was named in 2005 by Jiang and colleagues. They studied two fossils from the Guanling Formation in Guizhou, China: one almost complete skull with a forefin and shoulder girdle, and another partial skull. They realized these fossils belonged to a new genus, different from Mixosaurus.2 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how big Barracudasaurus grew, because only skull and fin bones have been found so far.2 1

Where the facts come from

Oh... Barracuda! (reptilis.net)
Barracudasaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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