Twentieth century Ichthyosaur

precious opal replacing ichthyosaur backbone, display specimen, south australian museum

in twentieth century, ichthyosaur research dominated german paleontologist friedrich von huene, wrote extensive series of articles, taking advantage of easy access many specimens found in country. amount of anatomical data hereby vastly increased. von huene travelled abroad, describing many fossils locations outside of europe. during twentieth century, north america became important source of new fossils. in 1905, saurian expedition led john campbell merriam of university of california , financed annie montague alexander, found twenty-five specimens in central nevada, under shallow ocean during triassic. several of these in collection of university of california museum of paleontology. other specimens embedded in rock , visible @ berlin–ichthyosaur state park in nye county. in 1977, triassic ichthyosaur shonisaurus became state fossil of nevada. nevada state possess skeleton of seventeen metres long (sixty feet) extinct marine reptile. in 1992, canadian ichthyologist dr. elizabeth nicholls (curator of marine reptiles @ royal tyrrell museum) uncovered largest known specimen, twenty-three metres long (75 ft) example, though larger specimen later reclassified related shastasaurus.

after slack during middle of century, no new genera being named between 1930s , 1970s, rate of discoveries picked towards end. half of ichthyosaur genera today seen valid described after 1990. new finds have allowed gradual improvement in knowledge anatomy , physiology of had been seen rather advanced mesozoic dolphins . christopher mcgowan published larger number of articles , brought group attention of general public. new method of cladistics provided means calculate relationships between groups of animals, , in 1999, ryosuke motani published first extensive study on ichthyosaur phylogenetics. in 2003, mcgowan , motani published first modern textbook on ichthyosauria , closest relatives.