Was this extinct animal the largest predator in history?

A new species of ichthyosaur, a now extinct marine animal, may well have been the largest animal – and predator – in the history of our planet.

A skeleton discovered more than twenty years ago suggests that this animal could have reached 35 m in length, reports the German media

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The skeleton has been studied for decades to reveal all its secrets.

The difficulty was first of all to determine the period in which this animal had lived.

We now know, twenty years after the discovery of the fossil by two Canadian researchers, that the ichthyosaur would have lived in the Middle Triassic period.

“These animals may well have been the largest that ever existed on this planet, and we know next to nothing about them.”

Join the fossil hunters on the trail of a group of astonishing super-predators.https://t.co/6Fb4Vq4mzM

— New Scientist (@newscientist) January 5, 2023

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A new species 30 to 35 m long?

This period is much older than that of the Jurassic and the Cretaceous, with which it was, at the base, associated.

The first skeleton, 21 m long, had highlighted the existence of a new species of ichthyosaur.

According to more recent analyses, however, it may well be that the animal could easily have reached 25 m in length.

But another skeleton questions.

Discovered in England (United Kingdom) between the 1840s and 1950s, this fossil was not immediately associated with the ichthyosaur family.

However, it is indeed the same lineage, but this skeleton is between 30 and 35 m long.

If these results are confirmed, the ichthyosaur would then become the largest animal – and predator – that has ever lived on Earth, thus easily dethroning the blue whale, which only reaches 24 meters in length.

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