Dino card No. 1784 of 2,027

Thalattoarchon

Say it: thal-AT-oh-ARK-on

Name means: “sea ruler lizard eater”1

Ate: MeatIchthyosaursMiddle TriassicNot technically a dinosaur

Thalattoarchon was a giant marine reptile that lived in the sea, not a dinosaur. It was one of the first big predators in the ocean after a huge extinction, and it ate other large sea 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

244 to 243 million years ago3

Middle Triassic

Fossils found in

Nevada, USA1 3

Food

Meat1

Length

8.6 m1

estimate, at least 8.6 m

Weight

4.3 tonnes2

estimate

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 3 cars

as long as 9 dogs nose to tailas long as 48 bananas end to endas heavy as 140 big dogsas heavy as 860 watermelons

How big was Thalattoarchon compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Thalattoarchon lived about 244 million years ago, just 8 million years after the worst mass extinction on Earth.1

Its name means 'sea ruler' and 'lizard eater' in Greek.1

Thalattoarchon had huge teeth that were flat from side to side with sharp cutting edges, like a knife.1

It was about as long as a killer whale, over 8.6 metres (28 feet).1

This predator was one of the first top hunters in the ocean after the Permian-Triassic extinction.1

Only one fossil of Thalattoarchon has been found, a partial skeleton including most of the skull and backbone.1

Its teeth were up to 12 centimetres (5 inches) tall, with a crown 5 centimetres (2 inches) high.1

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

?How big was Thalattoarchon?

It was about 8 to 9 metres long, about as long as a killer whale. Its skull was about 1.2 metres long.2 1

?What did Thalattoarchon eat?

It ate other large sea creatures, like marine reptiles and fish. Its big, knife-like teeth with cutting edges helped it bite through prey.2 1

?Is Thalattoarchon a dinosaur?

No, it is not a dinosaur. It is an ichthyosaur, a marine reptile that lived in the sea.2

?When did Thalattoarchon live?

It lived about 244 million years ago, during the Middle Triassic period. That was just 8 million years after the worst mass extinction on Earth.2 1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Thalattoarchon
Named by: Fröbisch et al. 20133
Group: Ichthyosaurs
Family / clade: Merriamosauria3
Classification: Ichthyosauria > Ichthyosauromorpha3
Age of the rocks: 244 to 243 million years ()3
Rock formations: Favret3
Countries: USA3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Thalattoarchon was named in 2013 by Fröbisch and colleagues based on a fossil found in 2008 in Nevada, USA.1 3
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how big Thalattoarchon could grow, because only one partial skeleton has been found.1

Where the facts come from

pnas.org (pnas.org)
Thalattoarchon (en.wikipedia.org)
Thalattoarchon 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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