Scientists have discovered the first dinosaur-vegetarian sea – BBC Russian

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Image caption Atopodentatus presumably belong to the same subclass of reptiles, as modern crocodiles snakes

, there are about 245 million years ago animal the size of a large modern crocodile, probably was the first marine lizard that ate only plants, reported . The report of the international group of scientists published in the scientific journal Science Advances

Creating received scientific name atopodentatus unicus – atopodentatus unique. In turn, its generic name means “strannozuby”

According to experts, the skull “strannozubogo” lizard was surprisingly small:. Its length is only 18% of the body length

In spite of. that marine reptiles first described a few years ago, the discovery of the remains of two copies of the form in the Yunnan province of China with a well-preserved skull gave researchers the opportunity to understand how it was fed.

One of the authors of the study, Dr. Nick Fraser of National museum of Scotland notes that the lizard might appear on the pages of children’s books of Dr. Seuss

“It was a strange, strange animal: they pluck algae from reefs.” – he says

it is believed, paleontologists, detection atopodentatusa will help shed light on the so-called Permian-Triassic extinction event types that occurred on the boundary of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras about 252 million years ago.

Scientists worried about how species arose immediately after this extinction – as, for example, atopodentatus, who lived in the middle Triassic, which is defined in the range from 247 to 237 million years ago – have adapted to the new conditions

According to the ideas of paleontologists at Permian-Triassic extinction event killed about 95%. marine species and about 70% of the land. As in the case of mass death of the dinosaurs in the late Cretaceous period, there are several hypotheses to explain the global catastrophe.

One study co-author Oliver Rippel notes that the discovery of such a unique species of animals, as a vegetarian atopodentatus shows that a variety of biological organisms on the planet after the global extinction recovered much faster than previously thought

“This reptile sure no one could imagine – just look at it It’s crazy.”. – It does not hide the delight Specialist Field Museum of Natural History

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