The remains, presumably, of an ichthyosaur were found in the rock on the shore on Russky Island in Vladivostok, Yuri Bolotsky, head of the paleontology laboratory at the Institute of Geology and Nature Management of the Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told RIA Novosti.
Participants of the Science in Travel. Primorye educational project reported on their Facebook page that while walking on Russky Island, they found a stone slab split as a result of the Maysak typhoon, on which they saw the prints of ribs and fragments of bones. The curator of the paleontological direction of the project turned to scientists, and they confirmed that it was an ichthyosaur.
Bolotsky arrived from Blagoveshchensk to Vladivostok to conduct research at the site of the find.
"Most likely, yes, these are ichthyosaur ribs. Ichthyosaurs lived in all seas. On Russky Island, this is the second such find. Parts (of ancient inhabitants) were found from Magadan to the south of Primorye - but it was very fragmentary material. But here it is more or less complete, moreover, a part is in the rock. The material must be dissected, and, perhaps, the most important part of the skeleton - the skull - will end up there. But its head could have been torn off 220 million years ago, "the scientist said.
He did not rule out that the head could be preserved in the breed.
The scientist said that the first ichthyosaur found in 2014 on the Russian island was not an active predator, it crushed the shells of bivalve mollusks, it had a peculiar dental system - not piercing-grasping, but crushing.
"This is the second complete find. It is still difficult to tell from the ribs and spinal column which (dental) system this specimen had," he added.
Bolotsky noted that part of the rock with the find had already been removed, the material was delivered for further research to the Primorsky Oceanarium.
Ichthyosaurs are a group of extinct marine reptiles with a shape similar to that of fish and dolphins.