Page 163 - The Dinosaur Book and Other Wonders of the Prehistoric World (DK-Smithsonian)

Atopodentatus
Placodus used different types Mixosaurus
of teeth to seize shellfish and
then crush their shells.

Like all ichthyosaurs, Mixosaurus
had limbs modified into efficient This odd, slender-snouted
flippers for fast swimming. animal had an armored
back for defense against other
Placodus marine reptiles and sharks.

Nothosaurus

Nothosaurus had Hupehsuchus
webbed feet like those
of a modern-day otter.

OCEANIC LIZARDS

Marine reptiles were the oceanic counterparts of the giant dinosaurs
that lived on land, but only a few of them were archosaurs—the group
of reptiles that included dinosaurs. Most marine reptiles belonged to a
different branch of the reptile family tree and were more closely related
to lizards and snakes than dinosaurs.

Shonisaurus
Fish
Tetrapods

This whale-sized Reptiles
ichthyosaur had a
long, toothless snout.
Marine reptiles Archosaurs
The flippers were
unusually long Dinosaurs
and narrow.

Equipped with sharp-pointed teeth, the Mixosaurus and Shonisaurus—were
crocodilelike Nothosaurus preyed on other fully adapted to live permanently at sea,
marine animals, as well as fish. Most of these even though they had to breathe air. Their
early marine reptiles had legs and probably streamlined bodies and powerful tails were
lived partly on the shore, like seals. But the similar to those of sharks, enabling them to
dolphinlike ichthyosaurs—animals like swim very fast in pursuit of fish. 161

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