Stratum.black
Ichthyosaurus — Ichthyosaurus
Ichthyosaurus — Nobu Tamura ( http://spinops.blogspot.com ), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0

Marine reptile

Ichthyosaurus

Ichthyosaur

Ichthyosaurus is the small Early Jurassic ichthyosaur of Lyme Regis, Charmouth and Street in Somerset, 2–3 m long, known from many complete skeletons. Isolated vertebrae (biconcave discs), paddle bones and teeth wash out of the Dorset cliffs and are cheap; skulls and skeletons prepared from Black Ven blocks are expensive and sometimes restored. Somerset 'Street' ichthyosaurs in the old lias quarries are largely museum stock.

PhylumChordata
ClassReptilia
OrderIchthyosauria
FamilyIchthyosauridae
GroupMarine reptile
Rank (PBDB)genus· Paleobiology Database
AuthorKoenig 1818· Paleobiology Database
Classification (PBDB)Chordata › Reptilia › Ichthyosauria › Ichthyosauridae· Paleobiology Database
Range (PBDB)227–100 Ma· Paleobiology Database
PBDB occurrences101· Paleobiology Database

Photographs

Ichthyosaurus — Ichthyosaurus sp 1822
Ichthyosaurus sp 1822 — Smithsonian Institution (NMNHPALEO), Smithsonian Open Access, CC0
Ichthyosaurus — Ichthyosaurus De la Beche & Conybeare, 1821 (NHMUK PV R 1126)
Ichthyosaurus De la Beche & Conybeare, 1821 (NHMUK PV R 1126) — © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum (London) Data Portal, CC BY 4.0
Ichthyosaurus — Ichthyosaurus De la Beche & Conybeare, 1821, NON-TYPE (NHMUK PV OR 40103 (2))
Ichthyosaurus De la Beche & Conybeare, 1821, NON-TYPE (NHMUK PV OR 40103 (2)) — © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum (London) Data Portal, CC BY 4.0

Age

Formations

Elsewhere

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Ichthyosaurus" (Taxon). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19. https://stratum.black/study/taxa/ichthyosaurus. Accessed 2026-09-20.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-ichthyosaurus,
  title        = {Ichthyosaurus},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/taxa/ichthyosaurus}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Taxon article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, pbdb, wikidata, commons, smithsonian, nhm. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
}

Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.