Ichthyosaurs were fighters

Galvasean

Ichthyosaurs, the 'fish lizards' of the Mesozoic, are often considered to be some of the more gentle of the prehistoric marine reptiles. While they certainly don't appear to have been anywhere near as nasty as the mosasaurs or pliosaurs, they were prone to a bit of in fighting themselves.

Zammit and Kear are tentative about their conclusions—without a time machine and some scuba gear, we can’t know for sure what happened—but the wounds on the specimen are consistent with the damage another Platyptergius could have inflicted. “t is tempting to reconstruct the positioning of the marks on the ventral side of the mandible as the result of a restraining bite,” they write, “delivered when another ichthyosaur approached SAM P14508 [a specimen of Platypterygius australis” from below and attempted to neutralize the threat of a counter attack by clamping onto and forcing aside its elongate jaws.”

Read more here.


Restoration of Platypterygius australis complete with wound.

Rubecula

To be fair Galvasean I have never considered them as being gentle.

They were carnivores and they were reptiles. These two facts automatically make them out to be ferocious vicious creatures in my mind.

They may have looked like they were nice friendly things similar to dolphins, but I can't see it myself. I certainly wouldn't want to swim with them, especially the big ones.

I am trying to think of a gentle reptilian carnivore and the only thing that comes to mind is a mother crocodile protecting her young in her mouth. And I would not like to be swimming with a crocodile either.

Galvasean

Dolphins aren't exactly perfectly innocent either:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/3323070/Killer-dolphins-baffle-marine-experts.html

Rubecula

I remember a news item on the tv about that very subject. Showed footage of a poipoise being battered and tossed high in the air by dolphins. Poor little blighter had no escape and the dolphins seemed to have an evil delight in the entire thing.

Sad really, but it is nature at it's cruelest. I suspect this kind of thing has gone on for most of evolution, we just don't know it or prefer not to know about it.

Adam Khor

I agree with Rubecula, I never really thought of ichthyosaurs as gentle creatures, although a lot of people does seem to imagine them as some sort of Jurassic dolphin.
I always supossed swimming with an ichthyosaur would be more similar to swimming with a shark or a crocodile, than with a dolphin.

A little bit off topic but, now that you mention dolphins... have you ever wondered why wild dolphins are so nasty (killing porpoises seemingly just for fun, and even slaughtering babies of their own species), yet attacks on humans by wild dolphins are extremely rare?
Even the orca/killer whale, the largest and most ferocious dolphin, which even feeds on other mammals and has the potential to be a formidable man-eater, has never been known to hunt humans, and the only orca attacks recorded have been in captivity. Why? That question has been bugging me for ages...

Galvasean

Adam Khor wrote: »

A little bit off topic but, now that you mention dolphins... have you ever wondered why wild dolphins are so nasty (killing porpoises seemingly just for fun, and even slaughtering babies of their own species), yet attacks on humans by wild dolphins are extremely rare?
Even the orca/killer whale, the largest and most ferocious dolphin, which even feeds on other mammals and has the potential to be a formidable man-eater, has never been known to hunt humans, and the only orca attacks recorded have been in captivity. Why? That question has been bugging me for ages...

Indeed, it seems quite daft that orcas will take anything from fish and seals right up to the mighty great white shark and blue whale, but not attack humans.
A pet theory of mine is that they are smart enough to realise that attacking humans is more trouble than it's worth, Somewhere along the lines they may have kopped on to mankind's capacity for revenge and realised that if you kill one of them they will kill many of you. I saw a documentary about this warrior clan in Africa (the Massai I think?) who never get any bother from lions. in the past if a lion ever attacked one of them, they would slay many lions so now the lions leave them well alone. Perhaps dolphins have learned a similar lesson?

Adam Khor

Most interesting... yes, I guess that's a possibility. But that would probably mean that there was one point in History when killer whales would actually attack humans in the wild... maybe they used to be much more dangerous, and now they simply know better?

Thanks for replying

Galvasean

Maybe it's some sort of oceanic elitism, like how some people see apes as dirty smelly cretins, but think dogs are cute and worthy of our protection. Maybe dolphins see porpoises as dirty smelly primitive cretins...

JUST LOOK AT THEM!!!! :mad:

Adam Khor

That's a possibility too...

Now that I think about it, I remember one species of cetacean that is said to be everything but friendly towards humans... it is called the Pygmy Killer Whale (Feresa attenuata), a smallish dolphin known to prey on other marine mammals.



It seems that this species is highly aggressive towards practically all other creatures even when in the wild; they are known to growl and snap at humans, charge at divers, and one that was kept in a marine park during the 60s even tried to bite off a man's arm. It also killed other cetaceans it was kept with (by head-butting!)
No fatal attacks on humans have been recorded, but I would still not swim with a pod of Pygmy Killer Whales...

I guess we still have A LOT to learn about cetaceans. They seem to be incredibly complex animals ...

... and, yes, I do remember that this thread is about ichthyosaurs

Galvasean

Adam Khor wrote: »

... and, yes, I do remember that this thread is about ichthyosaurs

"I'll allow it!!!"

It's nice to see a thread last more than a few pages.

Entirely off topic but...


"Hey hey hey! What's goin' on over this side???"

Yitzhak Rabin

Here's a funny little comic about the biggest Dolphin of all, the Killer Whale.

Adam Khor

Hahaha hilarious XD :pac::D