A newly-classified fossil gives clues to how life in the oceans recovered from a mass extinction about 250 million years ago

The reptile is Associate in Nursing early relative of the ichthyosaurs - a massive cluster of marine reptiles that swam at the time of the dinosaurs. With its tiny toothless head, the creature is something of a curiosity, say scientists. The specimen suggests marine reptiles evolved quickly after the event. Previous evidence has instructed it took a long time for animals within the seas to get better. Details of the specimen, Sclerocormus parviceps, are unveiled in Scientific Reports. Dr Nick Fraser, Keeper of Natural Sciences at National Museums Scotland, worked on the fossil alongside groups in the America and China.

"Here's something that provides America a way of the biological process pathway," said Dr Fraser. "We've still got a long thanks to move to see where the ichthyosaurs came from, however it's a step within the right direction. "And it all points to a very speedy radiation once this mass extinction "Sclerocormus is one among the foremost shocking marine reptiles that I actually have seen," he explained. "Measuring 1.6 metres in total length it was one among the biggest marine vertebrates of the time. "It appeared after the mass extinction, which was at the finish of the period, and quickly became extinct."- this mother of all extinctions at the end of the period, which had a major impact on the world."China's geology is ideal for locating the remains of marine reptiles from the traditional oceans.

There have been a wealth of recent fossil discoveries inside quarries, including Sclerocormus, which has taken many years to classify. Earlier this month, some of an equivalent researchers unveiled another marine craniate fossil, which was conjointly found in China. Named Atopodentatus, it lived 242 million years ago and had a distinctive hammer-shaped bone.