New Paper on Strawberry Bank Ichthyosaurs Published
Submitted by Matt on 1 Jan 2012 0:00
An academic paper entitled "Ichthyosauria from the Upper Lias of Strawberry Bank, England" has been published recently, which focuses upon an extensive description of eight remarkably preserved ichthyosaurs from the BRLSI's collection. The paper, by Hannah Cain and Professor Mike Benton of University of Bristol, has been published in the Palaeontological Association’s eminent journal, Palaeontology.
The Ichthyosaurs, once assigned to one species, Stenopterygius hauffianus, are shown to belong to two distinct species, Stenopterygius triscissus and Hauffiopteryx typicus. Furthermore, all eight individuals are juveniles (five specimens) or infants (three specimens), ranging from one-tenth to one-half the normal adult length of the species. These discoveries give us a deeper insight to the ecology of the shallow seas of Lower Jurassic Somerset.
The full article can be found in Palaeontology, Vol. 54, Part 5, 2011, pp. 1069–1093.
