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Maiaspondylus

Say it: my-ah-SPON-dih-lus

Name means: “caring mother vertebra”1

Ate: MeatIchthyosaursEarly CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Maiaspondylus was a marine reptile that lived in the sea, not a dinosaur. It was an ichthyosaur, a fast-swimming predator with a long snout and sharp teeth. Fossils show that it gave birth to live babies, just like whales and dolphins do today.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

110 to 106 million years ago4

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Northwest Territories, Canada; also England and Russia1

Food

Meat4

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Maiaspondylus means 'caring mother vertebra' because a fossil was found with two embryos inside an adult, showing it gave live birth.1

The embryos found inside the adult are the smallest and youngest ichthyosaur embryos ever discovered.1

Maiaspondylus lived about 110 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous period.1

Its fossils were first found in the Loon River Formation in Canada's Northwest Territories.1

Maiaspondylus had a special skull bone arrangement: the jugal and maxilla overlapped a lot, which helped scientists tell it apart from other ichthyosaurs.2

Its teeth had smooth crowns and fluted cementum (the root covering), and they curved inward toward the tongue.2

The arm bone (humerus) of Maiaspondylus had three knobs at the end for muscles, with the middle knob smaller than the outer ones.2

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

you asked

Most asked questions about Maiaspondylus

?How big was Maiaspondylus?

No one knows for sure because no complete skeleton has been found. The known fossils include a nearly complete skeleton and vertebrae from adults, but scientists have not estimated its total length.1

?Did Maiaspondylus give live birth?

Yes. A fossil of an adult Maiaspondylus was found with two embryos inside, proving it gave birth to live babies, just like whales and dolphins.1 3

?Where was Maiaspondylus found?

Its fossils were first found in the Loon River Formation in Canada's Northwest Territories. Later, fossils were also found in England and Russia.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Maiaspondylus
Named by: Maxwell and Caldwell 20064
Group: Ichthyosaurs
Family / clade: Ophthalmosauridae4
Classification: Ichthyosauria > Ichthyosauromorpha4
Age of the rocks: 110 to 106 million years (Albian)4
Rock formations: Loon River4
Countries: Canada4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Maiaspondylus was named by scientists Erin Maxwell and Michael Caldwell in 2006. The fossils were found by technician Allan Lindoe, who collected and prepared them.1
Still debated: Scientists are still debating exactly how Maiaspondylus is related to other ichthyosaurs, especially the genus Platypterygius.1

Where the facts come from

Maiaspondylus (en.wikipedia.org)
A NEW GENUS OF ICHTHYOSAUR FROM THE LOWER CRETACEOUS OF WESTERN CANADA (onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
Pregnant prehistoric fossil offers clues to past | EurekAlert! (eurekalert.org)
Maiaspondylus 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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