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Despite the colossal Earth creatures, including dinosaurs and their aquatic cousins like plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, being wiped out in the asteroid disaster, a peculiar creature persists for another 1,500 - 2,500 years.
The super monster Atractosteus grandei may not belong to the dinosaur lineage, but it bears a striking resemblance to a blend of plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, and crocodiles.
According to Sci-News, it is a Gar fish, or 'ray-finned fish'. Gar fish are a primitive group of fish in the Lepisosteidae family. There are 7 species of Gars belonging to 2 genera: Atractosteus and Lepisosteus, first appearing in the late Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago.
Paleontologist Chase Doran Brownstein from Yale University and collaborator Tyler Lyson from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science - USA, analyzed the fossils of this ancient fish species, found in the lowest part of the Fort Union Formation in Bowman County, North Dakota.
The specimen is 66 million years old, close to the time of the dinosaur extinction caused by the impact of the Chicxulub asteroid, but even older by up to 1,500-2,500 years. This means that this super monster survived through the catastrophe.
