It was a tooth of a creature that existed more than 100 million years ago. A sea dragon.
This was a canine of an aquatic reptile like no other.
Ichthyosaurs. From the Greek work ichthys for fish and saurus for lizard. Fish lizard. Its search had baited Delhi-based scientist Guntupalli Veera Raghava Prasad to a fossil site in in south India.
Before tectonic changes and heaving sea-levels, this was once ocean floor.
The excitement was infectious. We were, after all, trying to rummage for a creature with no resembling counterpart in today’s world. Some as large as blue whales. Reptiles that gave birth to young ones. So odd in many ways, yet, so kaleidoscopically attractive.
A predator that was once more famous than its superstar fossil cousins with the same last name -- dinosaurs.
