Ichthyotitan

Ichthyotitan
Ichthyotitan (meaning "giant fish lizard") is an extinct genus of probable shastasaurid

ichthyosaur from the Late Triassic (late Rhaetian) Westbury Mudstone Formation of
Somerset, United Kingdom. The genus contains a single species, I. severnensis, known from
two surangular (part of the jaw) bones. It may have had a body length near 25 metres (82 ft),
which would make it the largest marine reptile currently known.
Ichthyotitan
Temporal range: Late Triassic (Rhaetian), ~
Holotype (A, C) and referred (B, D) specimens

of Ichthyotitan
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: †Ichthyosauria
Family: †Shastasauridae (?)
Genus: †Ichthyotitan
Species: †I. severnensis
Binomial name
†Ichthyotitan severnensis
Lomax et al., 2024
Discovery and naming

The first specimen that would later be referred as Ichthyotitan, BRSMG Cg2488 (the "Lilstock
specimen"), was found in 2016. It consists of a partial left surangular measuring 96
centimeters (3.15 ft) long. In 2018, Dean Lomax, de la Salle, Judy Massare, and Ramues
Gallois identified the Lilstock specimen as belonging to a shastasaurid.[1]
The Ichthyotitan holotype specimen, BRSMG Cg3178, was discovered in sediments of the
Westbury Formation near Blue Anchor in Somerset, UK. The first fragment was found in 2020,
with subsequent expeditions until 2022 revealing additional pieces. The specimen consists of
fragments of a right surangular. Histological features suggest that the specimen was still
growing, so was either a subadult or a young adult.[2]
In 2024, Lomax et al. described Ichthyotitan severnensis as a new genus and species of
probable shastasaurid ichthyosaur based on BRSMG Cg3178 and BRSMG Cg2488. The
generic name, Ichthyotitan, combines a reference to Ichthyosaurus—whose name means "fish
lizard", combing the Greek words "ichthys", meaning "fish", and "sauros", meaning "lizard"—
with the Greek suffix "-titan", meaning "giant". The specific name, severnensis, references the
Severn Estuary near the type locality.[2]
Other fragmentary remains of giant ichthyosaurs of a similar age to Ichthyotitan have also
been reported from Germany (Bonenburg) and France (Autun).[3]
Description
While its incompleteness made the size of the animal difficult to determine, it was clearly very
large. Using Shastasaurus sikanniensis as a model, the researchers estimated the ichthyosaur
to have been around 26 meters (85 ft) long, nearly the size of a blue whale. Scaling based on
Besanosaurus, however, found a shorter length estimate of 22 meters (72 ft).[1] The 2024
study describing Ichthyotitan provided a similar revised length estimate of 25 metres (82 ft),
making it one of—if not the—largest marine reptiles ever described.[2]
References
1. Lomax, Dean R.; De la Salle, Paul;

Massare, Judy A.; Gallois, Ramues (2018-
04-09). Wong, William Oki (ed.). "A giant
Late Triassic ichthyosaur from the UK and
a reinterpretation of the Aust Cliff
'dinosaurian' bones" (https://www.ncbi.nl
m.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5890986) .
PLOS ONE. 13 (4): e0194742.
Bibcode:2018PLoSO..1394742L (https://u
i.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018PLoSO..13
94742L) .
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0194742 (http
s://doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0194
742) . ISSN 1932-6203 (https://www.worl
dcat.org/issn/1932-6203) . PMC 5890986
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl
es/PMC5890986) . PMID 29630618 (http
s://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29630618) .
2. Lomax, D. R.; de la Salle, P.; Perillo, M.;
Reynolds, J.; Reynolds, R.; Waldron, J. F.
(2024). "The last giants: New evidence for
giant Late Triassic (Rhaetian)
ichthyosaurs from the UK" (https://doi.or
g/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0300289) .
PLOS ONE. 19 (4). e0300289.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0300289 (http
s://doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0300
289) . PMID 38630678 (https://pubmed.n
cbi.nlm.nih.gov/38630678) .
3. Perillo, Marcello; Sander, P. Martin (2024-
04-09). "The dinosaurs that weren't:
osteohistology supports giant ichthyosaur
affinity of enigmatic large bone segments
from the European Rhaetian" (https://peer
j.com/articles/17060) . PeerJ. 12:
e17060. doi:10.7717/peerj.17060 (https://
doi.org/10.7717%2Fpeerj.17060) .
ISSN 2167-8359 (https://www.worldcat.or
g/issn/2167-8359) . PMID 38618574 (htt
ps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3861857
4) .
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title=Ichthyotitan&oldid=1219695118"
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Ichthyotitan (meaning "giant fish lizard") is an extinct genus of probable shastasaurid

Holotype (A, C) and referred (B, D) specimens

Species: †I. severnensis

Discovery and naming

1. Lomax, Dean R.; De la Salle, Paul;

This page was last edited on 19 April 2024, at

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