Atopodentatus was a hammerheaded herbivore, new fossil find shows

Find changes previous view of Atopodentatus unicus, revealing the 244-million-year-old creature to be the earliest known plant-eating marine reptile

An ancient creature with a skull the shape of a vacuum attachment could have been one of the first plant-eating marine reptiles, researchers say.

Dug up in Luoping County in the Yunnan province of China, the newly discovered fossils of the sea-dwelling creature Atopodentatus unicus, thought to have lived around 244 million years ago, suggest it had a "hammerhead" skull, with two very different sets of teeth that allowed it to feed on underwater plant matter.