Dino card No. 1390 of 2,027

Parvinatator

Say it: PAR-vin-ah-TAY-tor

Name means: “little swimmer”1

Ate: MeatIchthyosaursEarly Triassic to Middle TriassicNot technically a dinosaur

Parvinatator was a tiny marine reptile that swam in the oceans during the Triassic Period. It was not a dinosaur, but a relative of ichthyosaurs, with a long body and flippers. It probably zipped through the water hunting small fish and squid-like creatures.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

249 to 237 million years ago2

Early Triassic to Middle Triassic

Fossils found in

British Columbia, Canada, in the Sulfur Mountain Formation1 2

Food

Meat1

Length

up to 1 m1

estimated less than 1 meter long

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 2 house cats nose to tailas long as 6 bananas end to end

How big was Parvinatator compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Parvinatator is known from only one partial skull and two forefins, making it one of the rarest ichthyosaurs.1

The skull of Parvinatator was twisted and broken by tectonic forces, but scientists reconstructed it to study its shape.1

Its forefin was well adapted for life in water, but it probably used it to steer up and down, not to swim fast.1

Parvinatator likely swam with an eel-like side-to-side motion, just like other early ichthyosaurs.1

The exact age of the Parvinatator fossil is unknown because it was found in a rock pile, but it lived between about 251 and 235 million years ago.1

Other small ichthyosaurs like Grippia and Utatsusaurus lived in the same area, suggesting a rich marine ecosystem.1

AI-made picture of Parvinatator — An AI-made picture of how Parvinatator 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 Parvinatator

?How big was Parvinatator?

Parvinatator was very small, estimated to be less than 1 metre (about 3.3 feet) long, based on its skull and tooth size.1

?What did Parvinatator eat?

Parvinatator likely ate small fish and squid-like creatures called cephalopods, based on its jaw size and tooth shape.1

?Where was Parvinatator found?

Its only fossil was discovered in the Sulfur Mountain Formation in British Columbia, Canada, in 1995.1

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Myth buster

Myth: Some people think Parvinatator was a dinosaur because it lived in the sea and had flippers.

Truth: Parvinatator was a marine reptile, not a dinosaur. Dinosaurs lived on land and had different body features.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Parvinatator
Named by: Nicholls and Brinkman 19952
Group: Ichthyosaurs
Family / clade: Parvinatatoridae2
Classification: Ichthyosauria > Ichthyosauromorpha2
Age of the rocks: 249 to 237 million years ()2
Countries: Canada2
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Parvinatator was discovered in 1995 by Elisabeth Nicholls and Don Brinkman in British Columbia, Canada. They found only a partial skull and two forefins.1
Still debated: Scientists debate whether Parvinatator was a true ichthyosaur or a more primitive relative, and whether it had a dorsal fin.1

Where the facts come from

Parvinatator (en.wikipedia.org)
Parvinatator 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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