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| - thumb|400px|Dos Shastasaurus. El Shastasaurus fue el mayor reptil marino que se ha descubierto, superando al Shonisaurus y teniendo casi la longitud de un cachalote. Categoría:Reptiles Categoría:Reptiles marinos Categoría:Ichtiosaurios Categoría:Fauna del Triásico
- Image:Shastasaurus2DB.jpgShastasaurus ("Mt. Shasta lizard") is an extinct genus of ichthyosaur from the middle and late Triassic, and is the largest marine reptile that has yet been found.[1] Specimens have been reported from the United States, Canada, and China.
- Shastasaurus lived during the late Triassic period. S. sikanniensis is known from the Pardonet Formation British Columbia, dating to the middle Norian age (about 210 million years ago). The largest species, S. sikkanniensis, measured 21 metres (69 ft).
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| abstract
| - Shastasaurus lived during the late Triassic period. S. sikanniensis is known from the Pardonet Formation British Columbia, dating to the middle Norian age (about 210 million years ago). The largest species, S. sikkanniensis, measured 21 metres (69 ft). Shastasaurus was highly specialized, and differed considerably from other ichthyosaurs. It was very slender in profile. The largest specimens had a ribcage slightly less than 2 metres (6.6 ft) deep despite a distance of over 7 metres (23 ft) between its flippers. Its skull bore an unusually short, toothless snout compared to the long, toothed, dolphin-like snouts of most ichthyosaurs. It is likely that this strange snout indicates that Shastasaurus was a suction feeder, feeding primarily on soft-bodied cephalopods which lacked shells. In S. liangae, the only species with several well preserved skulls, the skull measures only 8.3% of the total body length (9.3% in a juvenile specimen). Unlike the related Shonisaurus, even juvenile Shastasaurus completely lacked teeth. The snout was highly compressed via a unique arrangement of skull bones. Unlike almost all other reptiles, the nasal bone, which usually forms the mid part of the skull, extended to the very tip of the snout, and all bones of the snout tapered to abrupt points. Shastasaurus was also traditionally depicted with a dorsal fin, a feature found in more advanced ichthyosaurs. However, other shastasaurids likely lacked dorsal fins, and there is no evidence to support the presence of such a fin in any species. The upper fluke of the tail was probably also much less developed than the shark-like tails found in later species.
- thumb|400px|Dos Shastasaurus. El Shastasaurus fue el mayor reptil marino que se ha descubierto, superando al Shonisaurus y teniendo casi la longitud de un cachalote. Categoría:Reptiles Categoría:Reptiles marinos Categoría:Ichtiosaurios Categoría:Fauna del Triásico
- Image:Shastasaurus2DB.jpgShastasaurus ("Mt. Shasta lizard") is an extinct genus of ichthyosaur from the middle and late Triassic, and is the largest marine reptile that has yet been found.[1] Specimens have been reported from the United States, Canada, and China.
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