While the land was predominate by dinosaurs , the oceans were the kingdom of pliosaurs . These giant carnivores were some of the top predator in the seas some 130 million years ago , and now a newmassive species has been discoveredin Russia .
Pliosaurs were big maritime reptiles , belonging to the more slender - necked group of creature known as plesiosaur . While the small head and more graceful form of the plesiosaurs advise they were more adept at hunt Pisces the Fishes , the low-set body , big forefront , and mouth full of tooth of the pliosaurs inculpate that they chomped on more substantial prey .
It is thought that whilesome pliosaursprobably did nosh on Pisces , others were more potential feast on shark , ichthyosaurs , dinosaur , and even other plesiosaurus . Some species of these nautical creatures grew to telling sizes , with one of thelargestto date dig out of the drop on the ably named Jurassic Coast in England and measuring in at 16 meters ( 52 foot ) long , admit a bone - crunching skull of 2.4 meters ( 8 foot ) .
This latest discovery is a not quite as big as that , but it ’s still no shrinking violet . The skull of the beast , measuring 1.5 meters ( 5 feet ) long , was first discovered on the bank building of the Volga River , near the metropolis of Ulyanovsk , in 2002 , but has remained undescribed until now . In a new field of study release inCurrent Biology , the latest beastie is namedLuskhan itilensis , or Master Spirit from the Volga River . base on the sizing of the skull , the researchers surmise that the pliosaur would have gain the length of a bus .
Interestingly , the slender snout of the newly described reptilian looks incredibly similar to another chemical group of pliosaurs do it as the polycotylids . But by analyzing the family tree of the creatures , the researchers determined that this feature evolved repeatedly among the mathematical group of marine reptilian between 200 and 146 million days ago , in a process known as convergent evolution .
This elongate olfactory organ of the new mintage suggests that while its more robust relative may have been snacking on dinosaurs , this specie may have returned to a more suspicious diet . “ This is the most dramatic characteristic , as it advise that pliosaurs colonized a much wider reach of bionomical recession than antecedently assumed , ” explains leading writer Valentin Fischer , from the Université de Liège , in astatement .
