Posted on 01/25/2019 8:50:16 AM PST by ETL
Just like the modern platypus, this 250-million-year-old, Triassic-age marine reptile likely used its cartilaginous bill to discover and seize its next meal, a new study finds.
"This animal had unusually small eyes for the body, only rivaled by some living animals that rely on senses other than vision and feed in the dusk or darkness — for example some shrews, badgers and the duck-billed platypus," said study lead researcher Ryosuke Motani, a paleobiologist at the University of California, Davis.
"So, it most likely used tactile senses [with its] platypus-like bill to detect prey in the dusk or darkness." ..."
Previously, scientists had only partial, headless fossils of the creature, known scientifically as Eretmorhipis carrolldongi. But about a decade ago, study co-researcher Cheng Long, of the Wuhan Center of China Geological Survey, and his team were invited by the government of Yuan'an County, Hubei province, to excavate the lower Triassic Jialingjiang Formation. It was there that they unearthed a spectacular E. carrolldongi specimen, including its tiny head, Long said. ..."
The 2.3-foot-long (70 centimeters) E. carrolldongi had a lengthy, rigid body, four flippers and triangular bony blades sticking out of its back, "somewhat like in the dinosaur Stegosaurus — [it's] very bizarre looking," Motani told Live Science. The critter likely ate soft invertebrates, such as shrimp and possibly worms.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
RBG’s latest xrays?
Looks good for 250 million years old. That tiny little bit of earth had to remain almost perfectly still for 250 million years to keep the thing in pristine condition.
I can’t even comprehend 250 million years.
I agree.
Another odd creature is a flounder.
In it’s youth, it looks like a ‘normal’ fish with eyes on
each side of its head.
But then as it grows one of the eyes moves to the same side
as the other.
Some types of flounders have a left eye that moves to the right,
and some types have a right eye that moves to the left.
There are some real odd birds as well.
I don’t think anything beats the platypus though.
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