When large marine animals like whales die, they sink down to the seabed. Once their flesh has been stripped away by ...

Long before whales ruled the oceans, ancient bone-eating worms were already thriving on the seafloor, feasting on the ...

Long-necked plesiosaurs, shark-shaped ichthyosaurs, toothy mosasaurs and many more saurians were swimming through the ancient seas, their success underwritten by a suite of anatomical specializations.

A remarkable plesiosaur fossil reveals that the extinct reptiles had scales like modern sea turtles, unlike the ichthyosaurs that lived during the same period ...

The team originally theorized the skin might possess the dolphinlike, scaleless qualities of an ichthyosaur, but were surprised at what they found: areas of both scaly and smooth skin.

Britain Plesiosaurus macrocephalus, a large-skulled plesiosaur found by Mary Anning A fossil specimen of an Ichthyosaurus communis from the Lower Lias, Lyme Regis, Dorset. A fossil specimen of the ...

The research highlights an evolutionary detour that runs counter to other ancient marine reptiles like ichthyosaurs and mosasaurs, which evolved away from scales in favor of skin, or much smaller ...

The discovery of a giant 100 million-year-old marine reptile’s skeleton in Australia has been hailed by researchers as a breakthrough that may provide vital clues about prehistoric life.

A newly described plesiosaur fossil from southern Germany is providing crucial evidence about the diversification of these ancient marine reptiles during the Early Jurassic.

Ancient Sea Reptiles: Plesiosaurs, Ichthyosaurs, Mosasaurs and More Darren Naish. Smithsonian, $29.95 (192p) ISBN 978-1-58834-727-5 ...

Before whales existed, bone-eating worms were eating into the skeletons of mosasaurs, ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs – leaving their distinct burrows behind in the process. New research, published in ...