I’ve always thought of ichthyosaurs as dinosaurs. But technically, I gather they’re classed as ancient marine reptiles while dinosaurs were those ancient reptiles that lived on land. Wikipedia highlights this issue more. Ichthyosaurs, of course, could swim. Since they aren’t dinosaurs, could dinosaurs swim?

Swimming dinosaurs touched bottom of lake from Reuters says yes, certain types. Footprints found on the bottom of a lake give evidence that some swam (and scraped the lake bed as they moved along).

Sea monster search draws MSU scientist to land of polar bears from Montana State University’s press office is a feature looking at their paleontologist Pat Druckenmiller and how he goes to the Arctic in search of fossiles. It touches on him finding a complete ichthyosaur skull in 2004.

Kathleen Bousquet posted here on the blog that she wanted a replica toy ichthyosaur for her granddaughter. That got me looking to see what’s out there in the way of ichthyosaur toys and gifts. Not a lot, but I did find her toy and a few other items.

The Miniature Zoo has a plastic toy here for $10.

I found that there used to be a really cute “Opthalmosaur Beanie” that was sold as part of the BBC’s Walking With Dinosaurs series. Unfortunately, these stuffed animals are no longer sold commercially. Those looking for them might try checking eBay from time to time. Here’s one that was sold a few days ago.

After some searching, I found another version of a stuffed ichthyosaur that you might like here, and for only $6. A picture of it is below:

That’s just one of many stuffed dinosaurs carried by The Dinosaur Farm, which has a collection of many other dinosaur toys and items.

Meanwhile, over at Big City Images, I found this sign for sale:

Isn’t it great? You’ll find it here, only $17. There’s a different version here, for “Ichthyosaur Dr.” Want signs for other dinosaurs? Here’s a list from them.

Finally, I’ve never been to Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada, but they appear to have a visitor center. I’d guess they probably sell gifts there, and I’ve yet to see a visitor center anywhere without toys for kids. Try giving them a call. Perhaps they’ve got items in stock of interest.

Fins of Ancient Marine Reptile Like Fiberglass from LiveScience covers a new study that finds ichthyosaurs  had a fiberglass-like collagen covering on their fins to provide strength. The collagen fibers were discovered after studying well preserved soft-body fossilized tissue.

‘Monster’ fossil find in Arctic from the BBC covers a massive “treasure trove” of plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs found on Spitsbergen, a large island between Norway and the North Pole. A giant plesiosaur fossil has been nicknamed “The Monster” as it is so large, 8 meters long. They also found an ichthyosaur tooth embedded in the neck of a plesiosaur, suggesting an attack. There are six ichthyosaur fossils in all, 21 plesiosaur ones.

Via Afarensis, Pregnant Prehistoric Fossil Offers Clues To Past from Science Daily covers the Ping Pong Ichthyosaur I’ve written about earlier. Nothing that much new from what was covered by sources in my other post, but the article does have a picture of the fossilized embryos worth checking out.

Pregnant prehistoric fossil discovered from United Press International covers a new species named “Ping Pong Ichthyosaur” for the spot where the fossils were stored for 25 years — under a ping pong table!

The fossils were collected decades ago in Canada’s Northwest Territories and somehow ended up stored under a ping pong table in the science undergraduate lab at the University Of Alberta.
Paleontologist Michael Caldwell arrived at the university in 2000, found the fossils and began working with them. At least one had embryos within it.

See also Pregnant prehistoric fossil offers clues to past, a press release from the university with more details. It also notes that this is the new species I previously posted about in New Ichthyosaur Species, Maiaspondylus, Discovered. Ping Pong is the common name.

You’ll find some discussion of the discovery over here at The Esoteric Science Resource Center.

Categorizing universal phenotypes from George Dvorsky raises the interesting issue of ichthyosaurs as occupying the role of dolphin’s in today’s animal world.

Ichthyosaurs were reptiles; dolphins are mammals. They might look similar, but they were completely different creatures. Still, Dvorsky argues that were the same in terms of the role they played:

In its day [the ichthyosaur] occupied the same ecological niche as the dolphin does today. In fact, these organisms are practically identical despite the fact that one was a reptile and one a mammal. These unrelated organisms were shaped by the same environmental pressures, the same laws of physics and hydrodynamics, and likely fed upon the same type of prey. For all intents and purposes, they are the same creature. More importantly, they occupied the same ecological niche and arrived there due to virtually identical environmental pressures. Thus, what I’m arguing is that dolphins and ichthyosaurs require a common classification.

From Palaonotology, this new paper covers how at least one new genus and species of ichthyosaurs has been discovered from deposits of the Loon River Formation at Hay River, Northwest Territories, Canada.

Cretaceous ichthyosaurs, from what I understand, have all been part of the Platypterygius genus. The new fossils don’t fit that genus, and so a new Maiaspondylus lindoei has been created.

Daren Naish in Life in the Oxford Clay sea writes about the ancient creatures that can be found in the mudrock formation that covers much of Britain and northern France — ichthyosaurs among them. Well, one type — Ophthalmosaurus– the name coming from its large eyes.