Tuesday, December 20, 2022

Breeding colony?

A fossil site in Nevada that contains a lot of ichthyosaur skeletons is now believed to be a breeding colony. At first it was thought to be a tragedy, but the 37 skeletons are over a long period of time.

Like modern marine mammals, ichthyosaurs sought a safe place and company to give birth. (Ichthyosaurs were not dinosaurs, none of whom were live bearers to our knowledge).

How do we know? From a different kind of tragedy. Some of the fossils contained the bones of newborns still in the birth canal...the bodies of ichthyosaurs who died in childbirth.

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