Ancient Sea Reptile Fossils Unearthed on Arctic and Norwegian Islands
The discovery of 250 million-year-old bones on the remote Arctic island of Spitsbergen suggests that ichthyosaurs, ancient marine reptiles resembling modern dolphins, may have roamed Earth's oceans much earlier than previously thought. The fossils represent the oldest evidence of ichthyosaurs ever found and suggest that they may have appeared prior to the End-Permian Mass Extinction, rather than evolving as a result of the event. The discovery challenges the current timeline for ichthyosaurs and suggests that they were mass extinction survivors rather than ecological successors.