In Depth
Leptonectes is the type genus of Leptopterygiidae group of ichthyosaurs that had specialised upper jaws that protruded beyond the end of the lower jaw. This group of ichthyosaurs are sometimes envisioned using these snouts to stir up sediment on the sea floor to find buried prey, however because their jaws resemble those of swordfish it is thought that they may have used them like swordfish to kill prey. This would involve using their long rostrum to swipe at fish in front of them and causing injuries to their flanks so that they could not swim away, thus significantly increasing the chance of prey capture.
Two other ichthyosaurs with similar elongated snouts to Leptonectes are Eurhinosaurus and Excalibosaurus.
Further Reading
– Additional notices on the fossil genera Ichthyosaurus and plesiosaurus. – Transactions of the Geological Society of London, Series 2 1:103-123. – W. D. Conybeare – 1822. – A new Pliensbachian Ichthyosaur from Dorset, England. – Palaeontology 42(5):761-768. – C. McGowan & A. C. Milner – 1999. – Evidence for the longest stratigraphic range of a post-Triassic Ichthyosaur: a Leptonectes tenuirostris from the Pliensbachian (Lower Jurassic) of Switzerland. – Geobios 39: 491-505. – M.W. Maisch & R. G. Reisdorf – 2006. – First report of Leptonectes (Ichthyosauria: Leptonectidae) from the Lower Jurassic (Pliensbachian) of Asturias, northern Spain. – Palaeontologia Electronica. 21 (2): Article number 21.2.29A. – Marta S. Fern�ndez, Laura Pi�uela & Jos� Carlos Garc�a-Ramos – 2018.
