India’s first Jurassic ichthyosaur

A near-complete ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaur, roughly 5.5 m long, found in the Kachchh Basin and published in 2017.

Near Lodai, Kachchh district, Gujarat, India · Late Jurassic

In 2016 a team excavated a largely articulated ichthyosaur skeleton from Late Jurassic marine rocks of the Kachchh Basin. Published in PLOS ONE in 2017, it was the first Jurassic ichthyosaur reported from India and belongs to the family Ophthalmosauridae.

The find adds evidence for marine connections between the Indo-Madagascan region and other Gondwanan seas during the Jurassic.