Overview

• Researchers formally described the near-complete skeleton in Papers in Palaeontology on October 10, 2025, naming it Xiphodracon goldencapensis.
• Discovered near Golden Cap in 2001 by fossil collector Chris Moore and later acquired by the Royal Ontario Museum, the fossil had remained largely unstudied until recent work.
• The three-dimensional preservation reveals a long, sword-like snout, an enormous eye socket, and a previously unseen lacrimal bone with prong-like structures, with the animal estimated at about 3 meters long.
• Pathological signs include malformed limb bones and teeth indicating injury or disease in life, plus a bite wound to the skull consistent with attack by a larger ichthyosaur, offering a likely cause of death.
• The find fills a scarce Pliensbachian record, supports an earlier timing for a major ichthyosaur faunal turnover whose drivers remain unknown, and is slated for display at the Royal Ontario Museum, with possible stomach contents suggesting a diet of fish and squid.