Some 250 million years ago, ocean water covered what is now called Flowerdalen (“Flower’s valley”) in modern-day Norway. Life in these waters was different than it had been just 252 million years ago, when the End-Permian Mass Extinction had eliminated 90 percent of marine species from the planet. What remained were plucky opportunists, including a type of sea-dwelling reptile called an ichthyosaur, which had evolved flippers from land-dwelling feet.
When they died, their remains attracted sediments that over millions of years formed limestone boulders like time capsules that now rest among eroded mudstone in Flower’s valley. These Norwegian “concretions” have preserved the bones of early marine fauna, including the adaptable ichthyosaur, for future millenia.
Now, a new ichthyosaur discovery from the valley has broad implications for the history of this time and the dinosaurs.
Read More: The Permian Extinction: Life on Earth Nearly Disappeared During the ‘Great Dying’
In 2014, ...
