Hupehsuchus nanchangensis, a species of marine reptile that lived between 249 and 247 million years ago in what is now China, had soft structures such as an expanding throat region to allow it to engulf great masses of water containing shrimp-like prey, and baleen whale-like structures to filter food items as it swam forward.
Filter feeding involves an animal moving through the water and extracting small organisms, such as krill or plankton, for food via sieve-type mechanisms.
Filter feeding fish such as basking sharks use their gills to retain food from water, while filter feeding whales sift material through baleen plates.
To date, there has been very little evidence suggesting that ancient marine reptiles from the Mesozic era (252 to 66 million years ago) were filter feeders due to a lack of the appropriate features in fossil records.
“We were amazed to discover these adaptations in such an early marine reptile,” said Dr. Zichen Fang, a paleontologist at the Wuhan Center of China Geological Survey.
In their study, Dr. Fang and colleagues examined two specimens of Hupehsuchus nanchangensis, a hupehsuchian reptile from the Triassic period of China.
Both specimens were collected from the Jialingjiang Formation in Nanzhang and Yuan’an County, Hubei Province.
One specimen is well-preserved from head to clavicle (collarbone), while the other is a nearly complete skeleton.
“The hupehsuchians were a unique group in China, close relatives of the ichthyosaurs, and known for 50 years, but their mode of life was not fully understood,” Dr. Fang said.
“The hupesuchians lived in the Early Triassic, about 248 million years ago, in China and they were part of a huge and rapid re-population of the oceans,” added University of Bristol’s Professor Michael Benton.
“This was a time of turmoil, only 3 million years after the huge end-Permian mass extinction which had wiped out most of life.”
“It’s been amazing to discover how fast these large marine…
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