Dinosaur fossil (Photo : Motani et al.)
PLOS ONE, an open-access journal, published a study by Xiao-hong Chen, Ryosuke Motani, et al. on Dec. 17 that reported the discovery of a new species of short-necked marine reptiles in Hubei, China, that lived during the lower Triassic period, some 248 million years ago.
The newly unearthed fossil has been named Eohupehsuchus brevicollis. Scientists provided an explanation for the name Eohupehsuchus, which means "dawn hupehsuchians," and brevicollis, which stands for "short neck."
Hupehsuchia comes from "Hupeh," an alternate spelling for Hubei, and "Suchus," a Greek name for the crocodile deity known by Egyptians as Sobek. It is said that Hupehsuchians are enigmatic marine reptiles which are known for the length of their necks, often composed of nine to ten cervical vertebrae. E. brevicollis was found to have only six vertebrae.
Scientists found that the specimen's left forelimb is incomplete and ends with broken digits.
"The breakage could only have occurred pre-burial," the study said.
"The individual may have been attacked by a predator and escaped. . . . There is no evidence of healing, so the individual may not have lived for too long after it escaped."
Despite discovering the Hupehsuchians more than five decades ago, scientists know very little about it, and as of date, the authors of the study have unearthed the smallest hupehsuchian.
Other Hupehsuchians have long necks "presumably because the added flexibility allowed these animals to capture prey more easily, leading to higher success," said Motani. This implies that the new fossil lived before the time of its long-necked cousins.
Motani theorizes that life on Earth rebounded faster than originally theorized after the most massive extinction event in Earth's history, some 252 million years ago, where 95 percent of all species on Earth died. The specimen is believed to have lived 4 million years after the cataclysmic event.
The authors hope that their study will helps researchers learn more about the effects of climate change on the modern world.
