8" Articulated Ichthyosaur Paddle - Germany

This is a rare, and exceptional fossil a beautifully articulated, rear paddle of a 183 million year old Ichthyosaur. The paddle is approximately 8 inches long and while there is some repair to the matrix it has not been restored. It comes from the Posidonia Shale Formation formation in Southern Germany which is Early Jurassic in age.

Ichthyosaurs ("Fish Lizard") was a giant marine reptile which thrived from much of the Mesozoic era. They evolved in the mid Triassic from a group of unidentified land reptiles which transition back into the water. This line evolved in parallel to the ancestors of todays dolphins and whales, something known as convergent evolution.