My, what big eyes you have . . .

The Jurassic landscape of 160 million years ago must have been a fearsome and unforgiving habitat with terrestrial tetrapods fearing such creatures as Dilophosaurus among other dramatic predators. The seas of that era contained a group of ferocious predators not yet popularised by movies or toys, or even in our common lexicon, but contemporaries of the dinosaurs—the ichthyosaurs. These creatures were highly successful and represent a dynasty of...