New Specimen Revolutionizes Icthyosaur Paleobiology

A life restoration of Malawania by Bob Nicholls and C. M. Kosemen.

The fossils of a new species of icthyosaur, a fast swimming and likely warm blooded species of dolphin-shaped marine reptile, found in Iraq have changed the view of paleontologists on these peculiar animals. Prior to this discovery, it was generally thought that a series of extinction events during the Jurassic period had caused this group to eventually die out and lessen in diversity. However, the partial skeleton of this new species named Malawania anachronus supports the existence of a previously unknown lineage of Cretaceous ichthyosaurs. An extremely interesting detail of this discovery is that Malawania appears to be a member of an icthyosaur lineage which was thought to have gone extinct during the Jurassic period, making it an ancient example of a 'living fossil'. The typical textbook definition of a 'living fossil' is an organism that has remained essentially unchanged from earlier geologic times and whose close relatives are usually extinct. Thus, the discovery of Malawania as an archaic relict of a lineage of Jurassic icthyosaurs demonstrates that these marine reptiles were likely still diverse during the early Cretaceous, which further adds to the importance of this amazing discovery. To read more about this intriguing fossil discovery, click the link below:
Fossil saved from mule track revolutionizes understanding of ancient dolphin-like marine reptile
Also read this article by paleozoologist Dr. Darren Naish, who was a coauthor on the paper which detailed the discovery of this bizarre reptile. It delves even further into the events which lead up to this discovery and why it is so important:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/2013/05/14/malawania-from-iraq/