A new species of short-necked marine reptile called Hupehsuchia from the Triassic period has been discovered in China.
The reptile was found by Xiao-hong Chen from Wuhan Centre of China Geological Survey and his colleagues.
Hupehsuchia is a group of mysterious Triassic marine reptiles and it is known by its modestly long neck, with nine to ten cervical vertebrae.
The Chinese team has recently discovered a new species of Hupehsuchia that showed for the first time a species with a short neck (six cervical vertebrae) and named that species Eohupehsuchus brevicollis.
The left forelimb of this specimen is incomplete, ending with broken digits.
Scientists suspect the breakage occurred pre-burial, may be due to an attack by predators.
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Apart from short neck, the skull shape, with narrow forehead and parietal bones on the top of the head shifted back, the species has been found to be a new one.
By analysing related species the researchers believe that this new species forms the sister taxon of Hupehsuchidae.
The team outlined their findings in the journal PLOS ONE.