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 Scientists on Friday announced the discovery in southern China of
new fossils of a reptile from 242 million years ago called
Atopodentatus that clarify the nature of this strange
crocodile-sized, plant-eating sea-dweller.
When the first fossils of Atopodentatus were found in 2014,
scientists thought, based on its poorly preserved skull, it had a
down-turned snout resembling a flamingo's beak with a vertical,
zipper-like mouth. But two new fossil specimens, described in
research published in the journal Science Advances, resolved the
matter.
"On a scale of weirdness, I think this is up there with the best. It
kind of reminds me of some of the Dr. Seuss creations," National
Museums Scotland paleontologist Nicholas Fraser said.
 Atopodentatus is the earliest-known herbivorous marine reptile, said
paleontologist Olivier Rieppel of the Field Museum in Chicago.
Atopodentatus apparently used chisel-like teeth along the edge of
its blunt, hammer-shaped snout to scrape algae off hard underwater
surfaces. It then quickly opened its mouth to create suction before
closing its jaws to filter the plant material through densely packed
and needle-shaped teeth much like baleen whales strain tiny
shrimp-like krill from seawater.
Atopodentatus, about 9 feet (2.75 meters) long, lived in a shallow
sea in China's Yunnan province alongside fish and other marine
reptiles, said paleontologist Chun Li of the Chinese Academy of
Sciences' Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and
Paleoanthropology.
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When thinking of hammerhead creatures, sharks may come to mind. But
Atopodentatus' hammerhead feature differed in location and function
from the sharks, whose eyes are on the end of lateral extensions on
their head.
Atopodentatus appeared during the Triassic Period relatively soon
after the biggest mass extinction of species in Earth's history,
illustrating that life was bouncing back nicely. Other oddball
creatures also swam the seas at the time, including a reptile called
Dinocephalosaurus whose neck comprised half of its 17-foot (5.25
meters) length.
"If you saw this reptile (Atopodentatus) in isolation cruising
around with some of the fishes of the day, I think you would say it
was really quite absurd," Fraser said. "But alongside some of its
fellow denizens of the deep, I think it would just appear as one
more oddity in a mesmerizing world."
(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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