User:AtharvK/Sandbox: Indian Ichthyosaur

The Indian icthyosaur was a Jurassic ichthyosaur specimen found in the Katrol Formation in Gujurat, India, which is around 30 kilometers northeast of Bhuj, in the Rann of Kutch. This find represents the first Jurassic ichthyosaur to be discovered in India.

Description
The specimen comprises of a broad partial skeleton. The original skeleton measured 3.6 meters (11.8 feet),and was 5.5 meters (18 feet) once the other parts were found. The skeleton includes an incomplete premaxilla, several cervical vertebrae, dorsal and pre-flexural regions, left forefin, possible right forefin and isolated teeth, vertebrae of posterior caudal and postflexural regions, and phalanges possibly belonging to the skeleton.

Premaxilla and teeth
The incomplete premaxillary bone is around 36 cm in length. The preserved bone is a part of the bone that is anterior to the nasal and up to the tip of the snout. Both the right and the left labial faces of the premaxilla bear a longitudinal groove with a couple nutrient foramina opening up into its floor. The premaxilla is a semi cylindric bone with each side including an external facial and internal palatal part. The sectioned premaxilla contains 16 transverse sections. In each of the sections, the facial part of the bone is semi-lunate in shape with a convex outer face and concave inner face. The facial pair of bones meet along the midline and form the arch of the snout.

Multiple teeth were found in the premaxilla of the icthyosaur, judging from their wear pattern, Dr. Guntupalli Prasad stated that XXXXXXX was a top tier predator that fed on bony and abrasive organisms (ammonoids and belemnites), fish and other marine reptiles. However, the article by PLoS One that first proclaimed the specimen stated that it is unknown whether the abrasion was due to food procession or post mortem taphonomic processes.

Axial skeleton and ribs
Due to the fact that the vertebral column was embedded in a hard matrix of rock and sand, there were no clear diagnostic characters to clearly differentiate the cervical vertebrae from dorsal or the caudal vertebrae. Because of this, the description of the vertebrae was not possible until the specimen is prepared. But, short and wide neural spines were observed on the anterior and middle sides.