Ichthyosaurs didn’t suck. Not so far as paleontologists have been able to discern, anyway.

Let me back up a bit. Over 216 million years ago, in the seas of the Late Triassic, there swam immense, fish-like marine reptiles that paleontologists have named Shastasaurus. These 27 foot long ichthyosaurs have traditionally been illustrated with long jaws set with snatching, conical teeth typical of their close relatives, but in a 2011 study researchers P. Martin Sander, Xiaohong Chen, Long Cheng and Xiaofeng Wang found that Shastasaurus actually had a short, toothless snout.

Without teeth, how did Shastasaurus feed? Sander and coauthors thought suction-feeding might be the solution. Much like modern day beaked whales, the paleontologists proposed, Shastasaurus may have