Some 230 million years ago, massive dolphinlike reptiles called ichthyosaurs gathered to breed in safe waters — just like many modern whales do.
That’s the conclusion that researchers arrived at after studying a mysterious ichthyosaur graveyard in Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada. The park is home to the world’s richest assemblage of fossils of Shonisaurus popularis, one of the largest ichthyosaurs ever discovered (SN: 8/19/02).
“This is something we see in modern marine vertebrates — gray whales make [the] trek to Baja California every year” to breed, says Randall Irmis, a paleontologist at the National History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City. The sheltered, warm water
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