Halo Elite Fossil found in China

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Oct 3, 2012
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/02/05/atopodentatus-will-blow-your-mind/

The roughly 245 million year old marine reptile is beautifully preserved. Uncovered in southwest China and described by Wuhan Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources paleontologist Long Chen and colleagues, the reptile’s nearly complete, nine-foot-long skeleton is laid out as charcoal-colored bones against gray rock. And while not as wholly adapted to an aquatic lifestyle like the eel-like ichthyosaurs found in the same deposits, the stout limbs, hips, and geological context of Atopodentatushint that this reptile divided its time between land and sea. Then there’s the skull.

Preserved in profile, the cranium of Atopodentatus  looks like a bony version of a Scotch tape dispenser.  In front of a rounded orbit, the creature’s snout is a downturned hook that creates an arc of tiny, needle-like teeth that are fused to the sides of the jaw rather than sitting in sockets. Stranger still, most of the teeth in the upper jaw faced each other in a split running between the two halves of the upper jaw. Head-on, Atopodentatushad a zipper smile of little teeth.

its crazy how much is left still to be discovered, both alive and dead
 
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