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Wimanius

Say it: wi-MAN-ee-us

Name means: “Wiman's [reptile], named after Swedish paleontologist Carl Wiman”1

Ate: MeatIchthyosaursMiddle TriassicNot technically a dinosaur

Wimanius was a small ichthyosaur, a marine reptile that swam in the sea during the Middle Triassic, about 247 to 237 million years ago. It had a big eye and teeth on the roof of its mouth, which is unusual for an ichthyosaur. It lived in a warm lagoon near what is now Switzerland.1 2

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

Lived

247 to 237 million years ago4

Middle Triassic

Fossils found in

Switzerland, from the Besano Formation at Monte San Giorgio1 2

Food

Meat3 2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Wimanius had teeth on the roof of its mouth, which is very rare for an ichthyosaur. Scientists are not sure if those teeth were on the palatine or pterygoid bones.1

The only known fossil of Wimanius is a partial skull, about 25 centimeters long, found in the 1990s.1 2

Wimanius lived in a lagoon that was between 30 and 130 meters deep. The bottom of the lagoon had very little oxygen, but the surface waters were full of life.1

Wimanius shared its home with other ichthyosaurs like Mixosaurus and the much larger Besanosaurus, as well as many other marine reptiles.1

Scientists think Wimanius gave birth to live young, like other ichthyosaurs, instead of laying eggs.3

The name Wimanius honors Carl Wiman, a Swedish paleontologist who studied Triassic ichthyosaurs.1

AI-made picture of Wimanius — An AI-made picture of how Wimanius 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: Some people think Wimanius was a dinosaur because it lived in the sea and looked like a fish.

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

For dino experts

Scientific name: Wimanius
Named by: Maisch and Matzke 19984
Group: Ichthyosaurs
Family / clade: Wimaniidae4
Classification: Ichthyosauria > Ichthyosauromorpha4
Age of the rocks: 247 to 237 million years ()4
Rock formations: Monte San Giorgio bituminous shales4
Countries: Switzerland4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Wimanius was named by Michael Maisch and Andreas Matzke in 1998. They found the skull in a museum collection and realized it was a new genus.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure where Wimanius belongs in the ichthyosaur family tree. Some think it is related to mixosaurids, others think it is a merriamosaur, and some even question if it is a valid genus at all.1

Where the facts come from

Wimanius (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Wimanius - Encyclopedia of Life (eol.org)
Wimanius 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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