Kyhytysuka Sachicarum: New Marine Reptile | 03 Dec 2021

Recently, an international team of researchers has discovered a new marine reptile named Kyhytysuka sachicarum.

Kyhytysuka translates to ‘the one that cuts with something sharp’ in an indigenous language from the region in central Colombia where the fossil was found.
It has been named so to honour the ancient Muisca culture that existed there for millennia.
The fossil is a stunningly preserved meter-long skull, is one of the last surviving ichthyosaurs – ancient animals that look eerily like living swordfish.
- Ichthyosaur:
  - They are the members of an extinct group of aquatic reptiles, most of which were very similar to porpoises in appearance and habits.
  - They had a very wide geographic distribution, and their fossil remains span almost the entire Mesozoic Era.
  - They are first known from the Triassic Period of Asia, where they began as long-bodied, undulating swimmers without many of the specializations seen in later species.
The species comes from an important transitional time during the Early Cretaceous period when the Earth was coming out of a relatively cool period, had rising sea levels, and the supercontinent Pangea ( A supercontinent that incorporated almost all the landmasses on Earth) was splitting into northern and southern landmasses.