Dino card No. 1106 of 2,027

Macgowania

Say it: mak-GOW-an-ee-uh

Name means: “McGowan's reptile, named after paleontologist Chris McGowan”1

Ate: MeatIchthyosaursLate TriassicNot technically a dinosaur

Macgowania was a small, fast-swimming marine reptile that lived in the ocean during the Late Triassic, about 210 million years ago. It was not a dinosaur, but a kind of ichthyosaur, with a fish-like body and flippers. It hunted small sea creatures with its sharp teeth.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

227 to 206 million years ago3

Late Triassic

Fossils found in

British Columbia, Canada, along the shores of Williston Lake and near the Graham River1

Food

Meat3

Length

3 m1

about 3 metres total body 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 dogs nose to tailas long as 17 bananas end to end

How big was Macgowania compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Macgowania had a very large eye socket and a huge nostril, which may have helped it see and smell in the dark ocean.2

Its flippers had a special pattern of bones, with a mosaic of small polygonal pieces, which is different from many other ichthyosaurs.2

The first fossil was found in 1996, but it was originally thought to be a species of Ichthyosaurus. Later, in 1999, scientists gave it its own genus name.1

A second, nearly complete skeleton was discovered in 2009 by an outdoor club, but part of it had already fallen into a river. Scientists rescued the remaining part with ropes and plaster.1

Macgowania lived in the ocean, but it breathed air and gave birth to live young, just like other ichthyosaurs.2

Its name honors Chris McGowan, the paleontologist who first described the fossil, and the species name 'janiceps' comes from Janus, the Roman god with two faces.1

AI-made picture of Macgowania — An AI-made picture of how Macgowania 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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Myth buster

Myth: Macgowania is often thought to be a dinosaur because it lived in the same era and is sometimes shown in dinosaur books.

Truth: Macgowania is not a dinosaur. It is an ichthyosaur, a marine reptile that lived in the ocean. Dinosaurs were land reptiles with different body features.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Macgowania
Named by: Motani 19993
Group: Ichthyosaurs
Family / clade: Parvipelvia3
Classification: Ichthyosauria > Ichthyosauromorpha3
Age of the rocks: 227 to 206 million years (Norian)3
Rock formations: Pardonet3
Countries: Canada3
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: The first fossil was found in British Columbia, Canada, and described by Chris McGowan in 1996 as Ichthyosaurus janiceps. In 1999, Ryosuke Motani gave it its own genus, Macgowania.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if a second partial skeleton belongs to Macgowania because it is poorly preserved, so they debate whether it is the same species.1

Where the facts come from

Macgowania (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Macgowania 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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