Ichthyosaur

Ichthyosaurs were thriving in the oceans during the Jurassic period and are among the best-researched reptiles of this geological era. They were up to 4 m long and were perfectly adapted to life in the water. Like mammals, they bore fully-developed, live young. In order to breathe, they had to swim repeatedly to the surface of the water. The marvellous specimen was prepared in Holzmaden in 1902 and purchased by the museum. The aftereffects of the bombing of Freiburg in November 1944 and a concealed ingress of water caused damage to the original. In 1972, the then museum director, Paul Lögler commissioned the taxidermy laboratory at the Museum Hauff in Holzmaden with the job of expert restoration and transfer of the valuable skeleton in fractured split slab lime from the original find site.