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Fossil of ‘fish lizard’ from Jurassic-era found: Researchers relate India to Gondawana, The TeCake, October 27, 2017 https://tecake.in/news/science/first-jurassic-era-fish-lizard-fossil-discovered-gujarats-kutch-area-39424.html First Jurassic ichthyosaur fossil found in India https://phys.org/news/2017-10-jurassic-ichthyosaur-fossil-india.html Prasad, G.V.R., Pandey, D.K., Alberti, M., Fürsich, F.T., Thakkar, M.G., and Chauhan, G.D. 2017. Discovery of the first ichthyosaur from the Jurassic of India: Implications for Gondwanan palaeobiogeography. PLoS ONE 12(10): e0185851. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185851 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185851 Yours, Paul H.

I'd like to share my small Ichthyosaur collection. It includes Verts, ribs, a paddle bone and two teeth. These are from lots of different UK locations.

So I drew a paleo-reconstruction of a noteworthy but sparsely-known apex predator Temnodontosaurus eurycephalus, which was believed to be the top apex of the Early Jurassic until the rise of proto-pliosaurs like Rhomaelosaurus. Unlike its famous squid sucking sister T. platydon (metaphor, not literally), T. eurycephalus had a thick skull with deep jaws and large robust teeth suggesting a macropredatory diet and probably fed on other ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and anything else that it could swallow (Also, growing lengths of over 30 feet, it probably could swallow everything other than another Temnodontosaurus) This is actually my first time finishing a paleo-reconstruction using only a pen tablet and photoshop (All my other drawings were either unfinished or done on paper). I used a Huion 1060PLUS drawing tablet and Photoshop CS6 to draw this. Took at least 3 hours to draw, and I heavily referenced the holotype skull to draw the head. Turned out pretty neat, but I don't know if I should color/shade this.

I purchased these as Ichthyosaur teeth but i wanted to post here to make sure that that's exactly what they are. All are from the Rhaetic period of the Upper Triassic. Age=210 Million Years. Origin=Gloucestershire UK. Preparation=Gently Cleaned.

This Ichthyosaur fossil has just arrived in the mail, i won it at auction. It comes from Whitby in the UK. There are no repairs. On the last photo attached on top of the Vert, is this a rib bone possibly?

The bad weather gave me time to spend some time classifying. so i spent some time on my albian stuff. Everything has been self collected (surface collected) over the years. Everything is also small, so i chose the screws cases to store them. Everything can be seen on a dedicated galery on TFF : here or in higher resolution on my flickr : here 8 cases... So here we go Ammonites : (3 cases) then crustaceans (2 cases) : Other inverts (2 cases) : And last one : vertebrate remains I hope you enjoy it. that's all for now.

Hi master prep guys This has been a real challenge for me and I'm struggling. Any wisdom much appreciated. Potentially I've got a lovely ichthyosaur paddle here but it's driving me crazy. The matrix is so flaky I've had to put a stack of thin Paraloid on to stop the matrix disintegrating. I'm wondering if adding the Paraloid has stuck the matrix to the bone. The matrix is softer than the bone but is dangerously flakey without the Paraloid. I have a pen, pin vice and a hammer. The last tool is rapidly becoming an option! Should I selectively remove Paraloid-ed matrix? Other thoughts?

Hi, out hunting yesterday and found this beauty in a chunk of shale, also found a small one at a different location, seems to be a very nice specimen, do you think I should leave the layer of shale on it or gently use the scribe to remove it ? I'm thinking remove as you wouldn't be able to appreciate it fully until you can see detail, thanks.

Hi, found this a few weeks back, was going to prep it out but looked like was an easy split, little tap and it opened up, wanted to share, thanks.

Finished this today. Initially I was going to extract the vert and have it without matrix and then I saw the stunning crinoid bits, I love the pentacrinites stars. Found two ribs too so that was a real bonus. While the vert was easy to remove matrix from, it just pinged off, strangely to me at least the larger bone was sticky. There is a bit of matrix still on it but I've added some acrylic ink so it doesn't stand out too much. A light coat of Paraloid (10%ish) was added to all but the vert.

I have my eye on this fossil, is this really ICHTHYOSAUR bones or something else? Thanks

Made a start on a piece of water rolled bone block from Kettleness Yorkshire. Looking like Ichthyosaur femur? loads of what could be small ribs and ammonites mixed into the mix. Hard going matrix very tough and the bone pings off easily.

Yup. You read it correctly: Forbes article HERE. It was a monster, too. Enjoy.

I found this last week in north Texas in the Arcadia Park formation just above the Kamp Ranch Limstone. Is this from an "Ichthyosaur" and not maybe Pliosaur? Lance

Hi there - went to Lyme Regis to get away from the city and went wandering along Monmouth beach. Found this, don't know what it is but looking through fossil sites it looks a bit like an Ichthyosaur jaw. It has 'teeth' (if that's what they are) on both sides but I can't show both due to file size restrictions. Maybe I can double post. What do you guys think?

Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park is not your traditional museum, but it is home to Nevada’s state fossil, the ichthyosaur, so I thought I would write about it here. It’s in the middle of the state, far from any civilization. For years I had seen it marked on maps but I didn’t know anything about it. Since the word “Ichthyosaur” was prominent in the park’s name, I knew I would someday have to go there. So several years ago on my way to southern Utah for a week of photography, I took a detour to check it out. (You can read about the Utah part of my journey in several of my blog entries here but there is no mention of fossils in that part of the trip.) To get there from Reno, most people would take US Highway 50 to Nevada Route 361, then south to Nevada Route 844 and east to the park. This keeps you on paved roads for all but the last few miles to the park. But on these kinds of trips I subscribe to the axiom, “Never take an Interstate Highway when a 2-lane road is an option, and never take a 2-lane road when a dirt road will get you there.” So I decided to take US Highway 50 to Eastgate, then south on a dirt road to the ghost towns of Ione and Berlin, and then a couple more miles to the ichthyosaurs. When I reached Eastgate (not a town, just a private ranch off the side of the road), I shifted my SUV into four-wheel-drive mode and headed out. The dirt road portion is about a 30 mile drive down the middle of the Ione Valley. Don’t expect Google Maps to show you this route, you will need a good AAA paper map to find it. It was a bright summer day and I was the only one on the dirt road. The sagebrush was barely knee high, with clear views for 10 miles in all directions, framed by the Paradise Mountains to the west and the Shoshone Mountains to the east. It is the classic basin-and-range topography that sprawls across most of Nevada. Besides jackrabbits and coyotes, on occasion I would see the rare American pronghorn, often incorrectly called an antelope but really the last surviving member of an otherwise extinct artiodactyl family. To get to the ichthyosaurs you drive past the ghost town of Berlin, a remnant of the gold mining days of the late 1800s. The ichthyosaurs are in a quarry on the ground, protected by a building similar to the larger building at Dinosaur National Monument in Utah. The day I arrived I was the only visitor, and no one else showed up while I was there. I spent some time talking to the single ranger on site, a younger guy who had been there just a few months. He was promoted and transferred there to get experience in interpretation to round out the law enforcement experience of his previous assignment at a state recreation area. With only a few visitors a day (and some days in winter where there are none), he didn’t get a lot of opportunity. The ichthyosaurs are a late Triassic species called Shonisaurus, named after the nearby mountains. They are apparently the largest known species, with lengths up to 60 feet. A life-size sculpture on a wall near the building makes them look like giant Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons. There are several complete specimens embedded in the rock of the quarry together with numerous fragments (there are no mounted skeletons). It’s a rather small quarry with no excavations currently underway, and you can see it all within an hour. After touring the site I spent the night at the nearby campground, again the only one there. It was a dark night with an incredible view of the stars, accompanied by an occasional coyote serenade. If you go, do it for the total experience of the trip, not just the ichthyosaurs. Take time to explore the Berlin ghost town and spend a night camping out. Be sure to take all the supplies you need, as there are no towns nearby. Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park is a great place to get away from the rush of civilization and discover a bit of history and prehistory in a remote location. Ghost town of Berlin: