▪ Abstract Ichthyosaurs were a group of Mesozoic marine reptiles that evolved fish-shaped
body outlines. They are unique in several anatomical characters, including the possession …

Kaiwhekea katiki gen. et sp. nov. represents the first described cryptoclidid plesiosaurian
from New Zealand. It is one of the largest cryptoclidids known, at a length of over 6.5 m, and …

The history of life has been punctuated by a number of major advances. Among the
vertebrates, one of the most important events was the achievement of a reproductive pattern …

Contrary to the fast radiation of most metazoans after the end-Permian mass extinction, it is
believed that early marine reptiles evolved slowly during the same time interval. However …

Mesozoic marine ecosystems were dominated by several clades of reptiles, including
sauropterygians, ichthyosaurs, crocodylomorphs, turtles, and mosasaurs, that repeatedly …

The fossil record of a major clade often starts after a mass extinction even though
evolutionary rates, molecular or morphological, suggest its pre-extinction emergence (eg …

Cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) are an order of mammals that originated about
50 million years ago in the Eocene epoch. Even though all modern cetaceans are obligate …

During the Mesozoic, various groups of reptiles underwent a spectacular return to an aquatic
life, colonizing most marine environments. They were highly diversified both systematically …

The Diapsida, represented in the modern fauna by Sphenodon, lizards, snakes, and
crocodiles, encompasses one of the most wide-scale radiations in the history of vertebrates …

Marine reptile fossils are common in the Cretaceous epicontinental and continental-margin
marine deposits of Australia but much of the material is sparsely documented. A review of …