ICHTHYOTITAN: Biggest Sea Reptile

[suspsy]

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0300289

An ichthyosaur the same length as a blue whale!

[Concavenator]

Found out on a quick search the largest confirmed size for a blue whale is 29.9 m. So this new ichthyosaur may not be quite as large, but still similarly sized.

And OK, upcoming release from CollectA. When? 2025? 2026?

I still hope we'll get a good Shonisaurus figure some day. 

[suspsy]

29 metres is the maximum recorded length of a blue whale; 25 metres is the average length. If the holotype Ichthyotitan was indeed 25 metres in length, then it was almost certainly not the biggest member of its species, meaning that others could have been even bigger.

[Crackington]

Thanks for sharing this @suspsy.

The specimens may also have not been fully grown as sub-adults or young adults according to the article. Let's hope they find more fossils.

Edit: came across this Guardian article straight after with more on discovery and nice bit of paleo art: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/apr/17/ichthyosaur-fossils-somerset-may-be-largest-marine-reptile-that-lived

[Faelrin]

I feel like claiming that is jumping the gun, if not misleading. We only have bits of the jaw. Not much to go off of, when it comes to fully body size and length. I mean we all remember the deal with Perucetus right?

In fact this bit from this article makes that point even more clear:

https://www.newsweek.com/paleontologists-uncover-fossils-largest-known-marine-reptile-ichthyosaur-1890549

However, the researchers caution that further evidence is required to conclusively determine the size of this prehistoric titan, given that the new species has been described based on just two separate jawbones found in the United Kingdom.