New sea monster with 'arsenal of deadly teeth' discovered
Around 130 million years ago, a marine reptile with "an arsenal of teeth" used to stalk the ancient oceans.
A team of international researchers identified the new ichthyosaur species from a fossilised skull, originally discovered in central Colombia.
The ancient reptile lived in the age of dinosaurs and has been called Kyhytysuka, which translates to "the one that cuts with something sharp", in the indigenous Muisca language.
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Life reconstructions of Kyhytysuka sachicarum from the Early Cretaceous of Colombia. Dirley Cortés
The director of the Redpath Museum at McGill University, Hans Larsson, said the size of Kyhytysuka's teeth set it apart from other ichthyosaurs.
"This animal evolved a unique dentition that allowed it to eat large prey," he said.
"Whereas other ichthyosaurs had small, equally sized teeth for feeding on small prey, this new species modified its tooth sizes and spacing to build an arsenal of teeth for dispatching large prey, like big fishes and other marine reptiles."
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The skeleton of Kyhytysuka compared to a human for scale. Known bones are in white. Dirley Cortés
Researcher Dirley Cortés works with the skull of Kyhytysuka. Dirley Cortés
The identification of the new species shakes up scientists' understanding about ichthyosaur evolution.
"We compared this animal to other Jurassic and Cretaceous ichthyosaurs and were able to define a new type of ichthyosaurs", Erin Maxwell of the State Natural History Museum of Stuttgart said.
"This shakes up the evolutionary tree of ichthyosaurs and lets us test new ideas of how they evolved."
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