Fossils from some of the largest creatures ever to swim Earth’s oceans—whale-sized marine reptiles called ichthyosaurs—have been found in a counterintuitive place: atop three mountains in the Swiss Alps up to 8,990 feet above sea level.
Scientists on Thursday described rib and vertebrae fossils from two ichthyosaur individuals: one about 69 feet long and the other about 49 feet. They described from a third individual the largest-known tooth from any ichthyosaur with a base 2.4 inches wide and an estimated length of 6 inches, suggestive of a fearsome predator.
