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Re: Early Icthyosaur skin?
Michael Lovejoy asks:
<< Would early lizard-like icthyosaurs (Chaohusaurus, Mixosaurus etc.) have
smooth, naked skin or more typical reptile scaly skin? >>
This question came up when I was working on a picture for Mike Everhart of
Chaohusaurus. There's a carbon film around the specimen, but that's it as far
as I was able to go. In the Scientific American article (
http://www.karencarr.com/News/motani/1200motani.html ), Karen Carr gave the
beast a scaley hide. We checked with Motani and he said there was no evidence
one way or the other, if I recall correctly. I fudged by being
"impressionisty". Unless there's a specimen that's been eluding me, we just
don't know. DV