Ichthyosaurus

Ichthyosaurus was a mid-sized, dolphin-shaped ichthyosaur of the Early Jurassic. Its most famous fossils come from the sea cliffs at Lyme Regis in southern England.

Who it is related to: A branch of reptiles separate from the dinosaurs; exactly where it sits on the family tree is still debated.

Fun facts

Joseph Anning found a skull around 1811, and his sister Mary Anning found the rest of the body the next year, both still children.
Ichthyosaur fossils of mothers with young inside show that they gave birth to live young at sea.
The name means "fish lizard".

Dinosaurs from the same rocks

Ichthyosaurus was found in the Blue Lias, Kimmeridge Clay, Charmouth Mudstone, Oxford Clay, Westbury, which also holds these dinosaurs: the same region and broad span of time.

Carnivore

Dracoraptor

Jurassic

AI image · 88%Carnivore

Megalosaurus

Scelidosaurus

Duriatitan

Sarcolestes

Camelotia

Callovosaurus

Cetiosauriscus

Formation data from the Paleobiology Database, counting only each genus's main formations. One formation can span hundreds of thousands to millions of years, so this doesn't mean any two of them ever met.

Scientific details

Group: Ichthyosaurs
Family: Ichthyosauridae
When it lived: 100.5–227.3 million years ago
Geologic stages: Norian – Albian
Named by: Sepkoski, 2002
Fossil occurrences: 101 sites

Countries with fossils

Argentina
Belgium
Canada
Switzerland
Chile
Germany
France
Greenland
Mexico
Russia
United Kingdom
United States

Sources for the description and facts

Data from Paleobiology Database and Wikidata