Walking with Dinosaurs: Leedsichthys

Leedsichthys problematicus
Named by Arthur Smith Woodward, 1889
Diet: Filter-feeder (Plankton and other small animals)
Type: Actinopterygian/Ray-finned (Pachycormiforme) fish
Size: 52 feet (16 meters) long and 21.5 tons (The original Sea Monsters made it oversized)
Region: Europe (England, UK; Germany; France) and South America (Chile)
Age: Middle Jurassic (166.1 to 155 million BC; Callovian to Upper Kimmeridgian)
Enemies: Liopleurodon; smaller predators such as Metriorhynchus superciliosus and the shark Hybodus.
Episode: Sea Monsters - Second Most Dangerous Sea
Info: The largest of the bony fish (Osteichthys) outside of the limbed vertebrates (tetrapods) and one of the largest known fish that ever lived, the 52-foot (16-metre) Leedsichthys beautifully glides through the surface of the ancient Tethys Sea that covers what is today's UK and other parts of Europe, as well as the waters that covers today's Chile, during the Jurassic period. Like today's largest fish, the Whale shark, as well as the Basking shark and the mystocetis (baleen) whales (including the largest living animal, the Blue whale), this gentile giant was a filter-feeder that feeds on the rich plankton and other tiny animals in the waters and it had over 40,000 teeth that it used to feed.

I love this giant extinct fish for being a filter-feeder, the fact that it was discovered near where my family comes from, and being a beautiful glider of the sea surface during the Jurassic, something Ray Troll, a paleo-artist and shark expert, dreams of.

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