Fossils of massive ancient marine reptile found on remote Arctic island

Researchers have discovered the oldest known remains of a giant ancient oceanic reptile, known as an ichthyosaur, on a remote Arctic island, offering new evidence of how the creature may have evolved. 

The fossil was found on Spitsbergen, a Norwegian island, along the coast of a deep fjord, the Swedish and Norweigian research team said in a paper published Monday in the journal Current Biology. Previously, the oldest known such fossil was a 248-million-year-old specimen found in China. 

Ichthyosaurs first appeared around 250 million years ago, researchers said, but went extinct around 90 million years ago. Previously, scientists believed that the first ichthyosaurs would have been primitive creatures that were similar to land-living ancestors. Instead, the researchers found that the fossil was a more advanced aquatic predator, which indicates previous theories may have been wrong about the reptile's origins.