Ichthyosaur

One of the many trips I took while I was stationed in Nevada, was up to the ghost town of Berlin, Nevada. It was an old mining town, that the miners just walked away from. What was really the draw to me though, was the Ichthyosaur remains that they had up there.

Now when I say up there, you have to remember that Nevada is high desert, usually in the valleys you are at least 3500 feet up. Nevada has ribs of Mountains, all going N-S so you go WAAAAY up then Waaay down into a valley, then waaay up over a mtn range, then way down into a valley.

Berlin is way up in the Shoshone Mountains. And the remains of these creatures were at the 7500’ level in these Shoshone Mtns. An Ichthyosaur is a giant fish lizard that lived in the Triassic Age. There were about 40 different creatures discovered in the same area.

All of the remains, except one, are still in place where they were found. One specimen was removed and put on display at the Nevada State Museum in Las Vegas. Most of the 36 others were covered and protected for later study. The remains of 8 or 9 individuals are safely exposed inside the ichthyosaur shelter that is open year-round. The site became the Berlin-Ichthyosaur Park in 1970. It is located about 100 miles southeast of Fallon, Nevada. The geology of the area is complex to say the least. Now in the middle of a dry, sage brush covered desert, it is hard to imagine that 200 million years ago an ocean covered these rocks, or that hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gold and silver were mined next to the fossils of these giant marine predators. At more than 15 meters (50+ feet in length, and 40 tons, Shonisaurus popularis was for many years the largest known ichthyosaur in the world, and is still the largest ichthyosaur known from the United States. The recent recovery of the remains of a 23 meter long Icthyosaur in Canada has dramatically shown that even larger marine reptiles have existed but does not take away from the paleontological importance of these large, late Triassic ichthyosaurs. The current ichthyosaur shelter was built over the site in 1966 to protect the fossils from further weathering. No one really knows exactly how they got there but one theory holds that they represent a school of ichthyosaurs that were beached and died together like a group of stranded whales. Another is that they were trapped in a shallow embayment and died one by one over a longer period of time. The latest theory is that they died and were buried in a deep ocean shelf environment. In any case, the skeletons are generally oriented along a north-south axis, suggesting that currents or tides played some part in deciding their final resting place. Most of the skeletons are incomplete, with the most easily detachable parts missing. The condition of some remains suggests scavenging or an extended exposure to the elements, while others appear to have been buried relatively rapidly.
Ichthyosaurs - Mysterious Reptiles of Ancient Seas.


ichth

Ichthyosaurs (ICK-thee-o-soars) were prehistoric marine reptiles ranging in size from about two to over fifty feet in length. Ichthyosaur was the most highly specialized reptile for life in the ocean. Very fish-like in appearance and locomotion, they bore their young alive and had amazingly large eyes in relation to the rest of the body. These carnivorous reptiles ate free swimming mollusks such as ammonites, squid like creatures, and probably fish. Like all reptiles, Ichthyosaur was air breathing and resembles modern day cetaceans (whales and dolphins to which it is not related) in some of its characteristics.

Shonisaurus popularis

Living at about the same time as the dinosaurs, Ichthyosaur fossils are found on all continents except Antarctica. Their widespread existence and apparent success makes their extinction all the more mysterious. Of all the Ichthyosaurs discovered, the ichthyosaurs at Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park (dubbed Shonisaurus popularis after the Shoshone mountain range in which they occur), are among the largest specimens known reaching fifty feet in length.

The fossilized remains of these Ichthyosaurs were discovered by Dr. Simeon Muller in 1928 in a naturally eroded area of what is now the park. Excavations began in 1954 under the direction of Dr. Charles Camp and Dr. Samuel Welles of the University of California, Berkely. Excavations by Dr. Camp continued through the 1960's with a total of about 40 Ichthyosaurs discovered in various locations throughout the park. In 1984 Shonisaurus popularis became the Nevada State Fossil. Tours of the fossil house give a glimpse not only of this fascinating creature, but a view of the actual excavation conditions encountered in modern paleontology.

I am utterly astounded at the scale of these creatures, and the fact that they died under water, but are now 7500 feet above sea level in the middle of a dry continent. I can not fathom the magnitude of the geological events that forced the seabed they rested on to the heights that they were found. I wenty back to Berlin and the Fossils many times, and each time I was in Awe! The picture below is one of their spines, right out in the open, on top of the mountain. Each one of these vertebrae are the size of a big dinner plate. Imagine swimming in a pool with that guppy!!




spine