Paleontologists from the National Museums Scotland, the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology in Beijing, have described a new genus and species of aquatic reptile that lived in the middle Triassic seas (247-235 million years ago) of the eastern Tethys Ocean.

Protorosaurs were a diverse group of predatory reptiles that flourished from the latest Permian to the early Late Triassic in what are now Asia, Europe and North America.

They were characterized by their long necks and elongated neck vertebrae. The most bizarre of these reptiles was the long-necked Tanystropheus longobardicus, which had a neck up to 3 m long.

Unusual among protorosaurs, the newly discovered reptile, Fuyuansaurus acutirostris, had a very elongate snout.

“The markedly elongate rostrum that is more reminiscent of an ichthyosaur or certain thalattosaurs is unique for a protorosaur,” the paleontologists wrote in a paper published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Fuyuansaurus acutirostris was similar to protorosaurs Tanytrachelos and Tanystropheus in having an unusually long neck containing 12 or 13 vertebrae.

The back two-thirds of the skull, part of skeleton, and the majority of both the pectoral and pelvic girdles of the new protorosaur were collected from the Falang Formation at Jiyangshan, Yunnan Province, China.

“The relatively large orbit and lack of complete fusion between the neural arches and centra of the dorsal vertebrae indicate that this may be an immature individual,” explained lead author Dr Nicholas Fraser of the National Museums Scotland.

Fuyuansaurus acutirostris had numerous needle-like teeth that suggest a diet of crustaceans and fish.

The genus name, Fuyuansaurus, is after the locality where it was discovered. The specific name, acutirostris, refers to the elongate preorbital region of the skull.

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Fraser NC et al. 2013. A Long-Snouted Protorosaur from the Middle Triassic of Southern China. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 33(5): 1120-1126; doi: 10.1080/02724634.2013.764310