The Softer Side of Ancient 'Sea Monsters'

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Abstract: Palaeontology is the scientific discipline that seeks information about the evolution of the biosphere. In order to fulfil this undertaking, palaeontologists traditionally rely on anatomical information obtained from the fossilised hard-parts of extinct organisms. However, the rock record is capable of exceptional preservation, and occasionally decay-prone tissues and organs are conserved as carbonised or mineralised residues with a high degree of morphological fidelity. Such findings yield information on features that are generally not available to the scientific community, and are thus instrumental for increasing our understanding of, e.g., evolutionary innovations and the degree of adaptation of extinct animals. Moreover, the methodological advances of molecular biology and analytical biochemistry have provided access to another source of geobiologically relevant information: primary organics associated with exquisitely preserved body fossils. Examination of ancient biomolecules provides, among other things, an independent means of testing morphology-based phylogenetic hypotheses, thereby strengthening the objectivity of the field of palaeontology. Here, I present the state-of-the-art scientific knowledge on soft-tissue structures and biomolecules obtained from ichthyosaur fossils, and show how this novel information can be used to elucidate physiological and ethological traits that contributed to an outstanding radiation of secondarily marine reptiles during the Mesozoic Era.