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When Did Ichthyosaurs Go Extinct?
When Did Ichthyosaurs Go Extinct?
Sophia Al-Mansoor••6 min read
Unlike other marine reptile
marine reptile
Currently, of the approximately 12,000 extant reptile species and subspecies, only about 100 are classed as marine reptiles: extant marine reptiles include marine iguanas, sea snakes, sea turtles and saltwater crocodiles. ... Others, such as sea turtles and saltwater crocodiles, return to shore to lay their eggs.
groups, ichthyosaurs disappeared tens of millions of years before the end-Cretaceous extinction
Cretaceous extinction
In the oceans, the K–Pg extinction killed off plesiosaurs and mosasaurs and devastated teleost fish, sharks, mollusks (especially ammonites, which became extinct), and many species of plankton. It is estimated that 75% or more of all species on Earth vanished.
(65 million years ago) that marked the end for dinosaurs and the beginning of the age of mammals.
When did ichthyosaurs finally go extinct?
This last ichthyosaur genus was thought to have become extinct early in the late Cretaceous, during the Cenomanian about 95 million years ago. The ichthyosaurs thus would have disappeared much earlier than other large Mesozoic reptile groups that generally survived until the end of the Cretaceous.
When did ichthyosaurs exist?
Ichthyosaurs had a very wide geographic distribution, and their fossil remains span almost the entire Mesozoic Era (251 million to 65.5 million years ago); but they were most abundant and diverse during the Triassic and Jurassic periods (251 million to 145.5 million years ago).
