A NEW Jurassic sea creature was identified, and it used to rule the ocean as a mega predator.
The sea creature is named Lorrainosaurus and was alive during the dinosaur times around 170 million years ago.
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Lorrainosaurus had a 4.3-foot-long jaw and a torpedo-shaped body.
Its jaw bone was also around 1 foot.
They were a part of the pliosaur species called Thalassophonea which is also known as the “sea murderers.”
The findings were published in the Journal of Scientific Reports on October 16 in Scientific Reports.
The fossils of Lorrainosaurus were found in 1983 but a recent study reanalyzed them and confirmed that the sea creature belongs to the oldest megapredatory pliosaur species.
They were examined due to fossil-researching techniques becoming more complex.
There were about five fossils they reexamined including three different parts of its jaw, a tooth crown with a root, and a part of its fin.
The study found that Lorrainosaurus required its own branch on the pliosaur evolutionary tree.
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This is because they found that it has broader and more “wedge-shaped” splenials and bones in the lower jaw, according to the study.
The megapredatory pliosaur species were also recognized as a “dynasty” due to their level of strength and dominance at the time.
“Pliosaurids were the rulers of the Mesozoic seas,” co-author Daniel Madzia, a paleontologist with the Institute of Paleobiology at the Polish Academy of Sciences, told Live Science.
“With our animal, we are at the very beginning of a fascinating evolutionary history that we don’t really understand yet.”
Researchers discovered the fossils in northeastern France in a part known as Grand Est.
It was formerly recognized as the region of Lorraine.
The pliosaur species had its pickings when it came to its diet as other species were no match for it.
It would eat other massive sea creatures including sharks, sea turtles, other plesiosaurs, and more.
Its massive jaw allowed it to crush whatever prey it chose.
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“It ate whatever it wanted to eat,” Madzia said, per Live Science.
“It was one of the largest marine predators of its time.”
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