In the Early Triassic period, about 248 million years ago, the Hupehsuchus, an ancient tiny marine reptile, filter-fed its way through the early oceans.
Paleontologists made the discovery after uncovering two intact Hupehsuchus nanchangensis skull specimens in a recent study published in BMC Ecology and Evolution. The find makes it the first marine filter-feeder that appeared after Earth’s biggest mass extinction.
The Hupehsuchus is a type of ichthyosauromorph with paddle-like limbs, and a duck-like snout. Most specimens of the reptile were found in the Hubei Province in China. The early marine reptiles appeared on the fossil record about three million years after the Permian-Triassic extinction event.
Considered the Earth’s biggest mass extinction in “The Great Dying,” about 96 percent of the planet's marine species died when a global warming period caused a mass oxygen loss in the world’s oceans. About 80 percent of oxygen left in the ocean was lost, ...
