Uniformitarianism “the present is the key to the past, James Hutton observed the processes of the earth, in 1785
pic courtesy of discovering fossils.uk image of Lyme regis
1811 the first complete skeleton of a Mesozoic marine reptile ichthyosaurs was found by Mary and Joseph Manning , the rock type found in Lyme Regis UK, found within laid down shale of sediments roughly 200 million years , fast forward to 1982 fossils of the Ichthyosaur found in north Japan within black slate, Holzmaden in Germany fossils found in a location called lagerstatten ,trend among all three locations is that all the species were found in similar shale rock of layered sediments that were once part of the sea, uplifted a now inland. On February 12th 2014 a fossil 248 million years old was discovered in Anhui China the fossil revealed it was that of an Ichthyosaur carrying two unborn inside her the fossils are from the Mesozoic era
image courtesy of Plusone, oldest recorded Icthyosaur fossils location China
The Mesozoic world
Roughly 190 million years ago Pangaea divided into two main land mass areas, Gowanda to the south and to the North Laurasia German scientist Alfred Wegner had a theory that the continents were joined into a super continent ,Wegner read about identical plant and animal fossils found on opposite sides to the Atlantic ocean, the fossils he reckoned were too similar to be dismissed, plant fossils from the fern Glossepters were found in south America, India, Australia, Africa, and Antarctica the countries that largely made up Gowanda. the seeds were too large to of traveled by wind, in which the plant grew must also of have been of similar climatic temperatures, his hypothesis is the continents drifted apart and we now know that plate tectonics and convection currents allowed this mass drift to occur. Rock formations of America and Ireland, Scotland and Norway as were the marks left by glaciations showing the unique direction added to the evidence.
pic courtesy of International Appalachian trail, the break up of the super continent pangea.
Jurassic period was undergoing a period of transgression the sea was rising and resulting in marine strata over terrestrial strata, chains of mountains along France and the Armorican massif of Brittany were formed and the Vosges of the black forest in Germany, there was some folding thrusting and metamorphism in the chains, along the Alps trenches were formed, from the Liassic seas plate convergence uplifting stratified layers of sedimentary rock give us fossils from the black carbon rich shale’s of the Holzmaden in Germany, and that of plesiosaurs and crocodiles, In Asia high pressure low temperature metamorphism terrains along subduction zones around Japan,,the Kumikotan the cretaceous Yezo grouping of sedimentary rock and it unconformity is in a fault contact with the Kamuikotan, the limestone and shale location of fossils found in 1982 .End of the Cretaceous only in the Danian strata between Denmark to Sweden is the crocodilian Thorasosauras still swimming the Mesozoic waters, the reptiles time had come to an end, the fossil of the Ichthyosaurs recently found in china a reminder of what once was.
small Island Japan, courtesy of Scientific American
References
Bjorn, Kurten (1968). The Age of the Dinosaurs. London: Weidenfeld and Nickolson. p1-222.
Brenton,J,Micheal (2004). Vertibrate Paleontology. New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell. p1-472
Briggs,E.G.Derek & Crowther,R.Peter (2001,2003). Paleobiology 2. Oxford: Blackwell Science Ltd.. p440-444.
Okada,H. & Mateer,N.J. (2000). Creataceous Enviornments of Asia. Tokyo: Elesevier. p155-167.
Journals Montani,Ryosahe.&da-young,Jiang.&Tintori,Andre&Rioppel Olivier. (2014). Terrestrial Origin of Viviparity in Mesozoic Marine Reptiles Indicated by Early Triassic Embryonic Fossils. plosone. 1 (1), 1
Websites
Bbc nature prehistoric life.
Wikipedia, the Mesozoic
Mesozoic Marine Reptiles 