Grippia is an Ichthyosaur found on the shores of Greenland, China, Japan, and Canada. It lived 235 million years ago in the early to middle Triassic. The genus consists of four species G.longirostris, G. geishanensis, G. hataii, G. microenta.
Name/Discovery[]
Grippia (Gripp-ee-ah) means anchor in greek. It was named by Wiman in 1929.
It lived 235 million years ago in the early-Middle Triassic period.
Lifestyle[]
They were fully aquatic & adapted to shallow coastal sea environments during their time in the Triassic period. These coastal seas they inhabited were near the equator.
Grippia's diet is highly debated and mostly speculative. Dental remains analysis have shown blunt teeth positioned further back in the mouth + replacement k-9 teeth, suggesting an omnivorous diet. Past evidence from the 30s & 80s contradicts this though.
This evidence suggests a diet of armoured prey like mollusca & small fish. The problem with these studies is that they had no existing snout then. So, all of this is extremely speculative and we require a full skull to answer this question of diet.
Though now most scientists do believe Grippia didn't rely on a singular food source.
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