Xinminosaurus
Xinminosaurus was a marine reptile that swam in the seas during the Middle Triassic, about 245 to 235 million years ago. It had strong, crushing teeth for eating hard-shelled prey, and its body was built for life in the water.21
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Fun facts
Xinminosaurus had special crushing teeth, 5 to 13 millimetres wide, that were different from most other ichthyosaurs, which had pointed teeth for catching fish.1
Its skeleton was 2.32 metres long, with a skull of 29 centimetres and a tail of 99.5 centimetres.1
It had 140 vertebrae, including 60 in the neck and body, 3 in the hips, and 77 in the tail.1
Its tail bent downward at a 35 degree angle, a feature that helped it swim like modern fish.1
The front of its snout may have had no teeth, and new teeth grew outside the old ones, forming extra rows.1
Its flippers still had long bones like those of more primitive ichthyosaurs, but its body shape was more advanced.1
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Myth buster
Myth: Xinminosaurus was a dinosaur.
Truth: It was an ichthyosaur, a marine reptile that lived in the ocean, not a dinosaur.2
For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Xinminosaurus
- Named by
- Jiang et al. 20083
- Group
- Ichthyosaurs
- Family / clade
- Omphalosauridae3
- Classification
- Ichthyosauromorpha3
- Age of the rocks
- 244 to 243 million years ()3
- Rock formations
- Guanling3
- Countries
- China3
- Fossil records
- 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
- Discovery
- It was named in 2008 by Jiang and colleagues from a nearly complete skeleton found in the Guanling Formation in Guizhou, China.31
- Still debated
- Scientists are not sure whether Xinminosaurus belongs in the family Omphalosauridae or Cymbospondylidae, because it has a mix of primitive and advanced features.32
Where the facts come from
- Short communication New primitive ichthyosaurian (Reptilia, Diapsida) from the Middle Triassic of Panxian, Guizhou, southwestern China and its position in the Triassic biotic recovery (sciencedirect.com)
- Xinminosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
- Xinminosaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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