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During the Early Triassic epoch, ichthyosaurs and other ichthyosauromorphs evolved from a group of unidentified land reptiles that returned to the sea, in a development similar to how the mammalian land-dwelling ancestors of modern-day dolphins and whales returned to the sea millions of years later, which they gradually came to resemble in a ...
A = Anapsid, B = Synapsid, C = Diapsid. It was traditionally assumed that first reptiles were anapsids, having a solid skull with holes only for the nose, eyes, spinal cord, etc.; [10] the discoveries of synapsid-like openings in the skull roof of the skulls of several members of Parareptilia, including lanthanosuchoids, millerettids, bolosaurids, some nycteroleterids, some procolophonoids and ...
• Sea snake (bottom right) Marine reptiles are reptiles which have become secondarily adapted for an aquatic or semiaquatic life in a marine environment. Only about 100 of the 12,000 extant reptile species and subspecies are classed as marine reptiles, including marine iguanas, sea snakes, sea turtles and saltwater crocodiles. [1]
In the sea, the bony fish became dominant. The later radiations, such as those of fish in the Silurian and Devonian periods, involved fewer taxa, mainly with very similar body plans. The first animals to venture onto dry land were arthropods. Some fish had lungs and strong, bony fins and could crawl onto the land also.
A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the ...
Despite treating sea reptiles in general, it would for many years remain the most extensive general text on plesiosaurs. [35] In 2013, a first modern textbook was being prepared by Olivier Rieppel . During the middle of the twentieth century, the USA remained an important centre of research, mainly through the discoveries of Samuel Paul Welles .
A modern semi-aquatic lizard: the marine iguana. Modern squamates which have made their own adaptions to allow them to spend significant time in the ocean include marine iguanas and sea snakes. Sea snakes are extensively adapted to the marine environment, giving birth to live offspring and are largely incapable of terrestrial activity.
Rhynchocephalia is a reptile order that evolved around 240 million years ago. These reptiles used to live around the world, but today, only one surviving species remains: the tuatara.