Stenopterygius
Stenopterygius was a fast-swimming marine reptile that lived in the Jurassic seas. It looked a bit like a dolphin but was actually an ichthyosaur, not a dinosaur. It had a long beak full of teeth and chased after fish and squid.1
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Fun facts
Stenopterygius had a small skull and narrow flippers compared to its relative Ichthyosaurus.1
One well-preserved fossil shows traces of skin, revealing that Stenopterygius was countershaded: darker on the back and lighter on the belly.1
Fossils of Stenopterygius often contain the remains of its last meal in the stomach area.1
The tail ended in a large, semicircular, leathery vertical fin, and it also had a triangular dorsal fin on its back.1
Stenopterygius lived during the Early and Middle Jurassic, about 183 to 173 million years ago.1
The type specimen of Stenopterygius quadriscissus is a complete skeleton that even preserved a very large embryo inside.1
Most asked questions about Stenopterygius
?How big was Stenopterygius?
Stenopterygius was a medium sized ichthyosaur, with most species reaching about 3.5 metres long, while the largest, S. uniter, could exceed 4 metres.1
?What did Stenopterygius eat?
Stenopterygius hunted fish, cephalopods, and other animals in the open sea. Fossils often contain the remains of its last meal in the stomach area.1
?Was Stenopterygius a dinosaur?
No, Stenopterygius was an ichthyosaur, a marine reptile, not a dinosaur. It looked a bit like a dolphin but was actually a different group of reptiles.1
?Did Stenopterygius give birth to live young?
Yes, Stenopterygius gave birth to live young, and one famous fossil shows a mother that died in childbirth. It preferred tail-first births, like modern dolphins and whales.1
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For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Stenopterygius
- Named by
- Jaekel 19043
- Group
- Ichthyosaurs
- Family / clade
- Thunnosauria3
- Classification
- Ichthyosauria > Ichthyosauromorpha3
- Age of the rocks
- 184 to 171 million years (Toarcian / Aalenian)3
- Rock formations
- Posidonia Shale, Opalinuston, Beacon Limstone3
- Countries
- Germany, United Kingdom, Luxembourg, France3
- Fossil records
- 47 in the Paleobiology Database3
- Discovery
- The species was first named as Ichthyosaurus quadriscissus by Quenstedt in 1856. Otto Jaekel gave it its own genus, Stenopterygius, in 1904.1
- Still debated
- Scientists are still debating exactly how many species of Stenopterygius existed, because the fossils are often incomplete.2
Where the facts come from
- Stenopterygius (en.wikipedia.org)
- First Diagnostic Marine Reptile Remains from the Aalenian (Middle Jurassic): A New Ichthyosaur from Southwestern Germany | PLOS One (journals.plos.org)
- Stenopterygius in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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