Leedsichtis [1] ( lat. Leedsichthys ) is a genus of giant extinct bone fish of the Jurassic period . Belongs to the family of pachikormovye order pachikormobraznyh [2] , including primitive newfishes of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Described on the basis of finds made in 1889 near Peterborough ( England ) by the fossil collector Arthur Leeds [3] .
| † Lidsichtis | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Leedsihtis, lyopleurodon and ammonite | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| International scientific name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Leedsichthys Woodward , 1889 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Single view | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
† Leedsichthys problematicus Woodward, 1889 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Geochronology 164.7—161.2 Ma
◄ Nowadays◄ Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction◄ Triassic extinction◄ Mass Permian Extinction◄ Devonian extinction◄ Ordovician-Silurian extinction◄ Cambrian explosion | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Description
Initially, the length of the fish was determined equal to 9 meters (A. Smith-Woodward, 1905). Such a calculation was made on the basis of a comparison of the known lidsichtis residues and skeletons of the small pachycormida of gypsum feed ( Hypsocormus ).
But by the end of the 20th century, it was widely believed among paleontologists that lidsichtis was much larger - up to 30 meters long. It is these dimensions that are reflected in the series of the Air Force " Walking with Sea Monsters ", which was filmed in 2003. It should be noted that the reconstruction of fish in this series is far from scientific accuracy.
Meanwhile, in 2003, in the quarry near Peterborough, excavations of the first full skeleton of lidsichtis were begun. His study allowed us to establish that the fish size averaged from 9 to 10 m, while the largest fragmentary samples could reach a length of about 16-16.5 meters. Thus, lidsichtis corresponded in size or even was slightly larger than a megalodon and a modern whale shark . However, even with a length of 16.5 meters, it remains a very large fish, one of the largest fish in the history of the Earth and the largest bone fish. According to the results of studies published in 2013, young fish could reach 8–9 meters in length by 20 years, and by 38 years of their maximum size — 16.5 meters [3] .
With such sizes, lidsichtis could not be an active predator. Like modern huge whale and giant sharks, he fed on plankton (primarily krill , which is especially common in the Late Jurassic seas [4] ), which was filtered using gill stamens [3] .
Lidsihtis inhabited tropical seas in the region of modern Europe in the middle and end of the Jurassic period, about 160 million years ago ( Callovian - Kimmeridge ) [3] . Residues found in England, Germany, France and probably Chile .
In 2010, it was shown that a line of large pachykormid-filtrators existed from the Middle Jurassic to the very end of the Cretaceous. Bonnerichthys gladius was described from the late Cretaceous of Kansas , and Rhinconichthys taylori from the Cenomanian of England and Japan. These pachycormids reached 6 meters in length and were similar to lidsichtis.
Despite such a huge size of this fish, liddsihtis became easy prey for predators, since even a small sea lizard could easily tear out a piece of meat from fish - the liddsikhtis scales, bitten by pliosaurs [5] and metriorinhs [6], are known. However, they were much more survivable of modern whales and it was much more difficult to kill prey: several days could pass before the death of the sea giant, and all this time predators ate it while they were still alive [7] [5] .
Notes
- ↑ Zhuravlev A. Yu . Goldfish // Before and After Dinosaurs. - M .: Veche, 2006 .-- 352 p. - (Great secrets). - ISBN 5-9533-1258-X .
- ↑ Nelson D.S. Fishes of World Fauna / Transl. 4th rev. English ed. N. G. Bogutskaya, scientific. Ed. by A. M. Nasek, A. S. Gerd. - M .: Book House "LIBROCOM", 2009. - S. 168. - ISBN 978-5-397-00675-0 .
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Scientists measured the giant "cousin" of a whale shark from the Jurassic
- ↑ Atlas of dinosaurs and other fossil animals (“early Jurassic”)
- ↑ 1 2 The world's biggest ever fish: time to put out the trash . Tetrapod Zoology. Date of treatment June 23, 2016.
- ↑ Martill, DM, 1986, “The diet of Metriorhynchus , a Mesozoic marine crocodile,” Neues Jahrbuch fur Geologie und Paläontologie , Monatshefte 1986 : 621-625.
- ↑ Dinosaurs: BBC Illustrated Encyclopedia (Leedsichtis)