Dino card No. 0887 of 2,027

Isfjordosaurus

Say it: is-FYORD-oh-SORE-us

Name means: “Isfjord lizard, named after the Isfjord area in Svalbard where it was found”1

Ate: MeatIchthyosaursEarly Triassic to Middle TriassicNot technically a dinosaur

Isfjordosaurus was a small marine reptile that swam in the seas during the Early Triassic, about 248 million years ago. It looked a bit like a dolphin but was not a dinosaur. Its fossils were found on a cold Arctic island called Spitsbergen.1 3

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

Lived

249 to 247 million years ago3

Early Triassic to Middle Triassic

Fossils found in

Fossils were found on Spitsbergen island in the Svalbard archipelago, Norway, near the Isfjord area.1 3

Food

Meat3

Length

0.6 m2

adult length

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 3 bananas end to end

How big was Isfjordosaurus compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

cool stuff

Fun facts

Isfjordosaurus is known from only a single upper arm bone, called a humerus, which makes it a mysterious animal.2

Some scientists are not sure if Isfjordosaurus was really an ichthyosaur, because the bone looks unusual.2

It lived during the Early Triassic, a time when ichthyosaurs were just starting to appear in the oceans.1

The name Isfjordosaurus comes from the Isfjord, a large fjord on Spitsbergen, where the fossil was found.1

The only known species is called Isfjordosaurus minor, and 'minor' means smaller, hinting it was a small reptile.1

AI-made picture of Isfjordosaurus — An AI-made picture of how Isfjordosaurus 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.

Ask Rex about Isfjordosaurus

Rex only answers questions about this page. 10 questions a month.

Rex is an AI and can make mistakes. He runs on servers in the EU and questions are never saved. Never type your name or other personal things.

Myth buster

Myth: Some people think Isfjordosaurus was a dinosaur because it lived in the sea and had 'saurus' in its name.

Truth: Isfjordosaurus was an ichthyosaur, a marine reptile, not a dinosaur. Dinosaurs lived on land.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Isfjordosaurus
Named by: Motani 19993
Group: Ichthyosaurs
Family / clade: Ichthyosauria3
Classification: Ichthyosauria > Ichthyosauromorpha3
Age of the rocks: 249 to 247 million years ()3
Rock formations: Vikinghøgda3
Countries: Svalbard3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: The fossil was first described by Carl Wiman in 1910, but the name Isfjordosaurus was given later by Ryosuke Motani in 1999.1 3
Still debated: Scientists still debate whether Isfjordosaurus was truly an ichthyosaur, because the only known bone is so unusual.2

Where the facts come from

Isfjordosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Phylogeny, systematics, and origin of the Ichthyosauria, the state of the art (palaeodiversity.org)
Isfjordosaurus 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.

Rex is hungry! Dino Wiki is a dad's project for his dino-loving son, free with no ads. Grown-ups can feed Rex a snack to help keep it online.Feed Rex