Icthyosaur

Icthyosauria ("fish lizard") or Icthyopterygia ("fish flipper") that were playable during the Early Triassic up untill they were banned in the Late Cretacous. Majority of builds in this guild were Mobility-based builds.

## Species

### Location

North America, South America, Europe, Asia

## Tier List

### F tier

#### Nothing

No individual Icthyosaur main could actually qualify as low-tier trash. Icthyosaurs are said to be considered F-tier due to the OP Mosasaurus build. However, that theory has been debunked as icthyosaurs were actually rendered unviable due to low Evolution Point gain.

### D tier

#### Chaohusaurus

Among the smallest **Icthyosaur** builds, this build had crushing teeth, good for griefing its own prey, shellfish players. However, it lacks many of the adaptations that its guild has to avoid most of its predators.

### C tier

#### Mixosaurus

An **Icthyosaur** which is the first to develop good Mobility abilities. Its development of a dorsal fin helps it hunt faster targets. However, it only lives in shallow waters and is still quite small, thus being easy targets if caught, despite being faster than previous members of its guild.

### B-tier

#### Stenopterygius

It has among the highest Mobility of any Reptile build in aquatic servers. However, it is not as large compared to other **Icthyosaur** builds, and it is still vulnerable to predators like Pliosaur builds that it has to deal with when surfacing for air.

#### Platypterygius

The last of the icthyosaur mains, and also perhaps the lowest-tiered, due to competition from Sauropterygians and Sharks, It breaks its way into B-tier by being able to take down other builds, which it defeated by shaking them side to side. It also had good Mobility, typical of its own guild. Its only bad matchup is the Kronosaurus build.

### A tier

#### Cymbospondylus

This build is tough, but not the toughest, powerful, but not the most powerful, and fast, but not the fastest. And it rarely has any bad matchups other than the highest-tiered icthyosaur build.

#### Ophthalmosaurus

An Icthyosaur build with the best night vision in the game ever. It is specialized for taking advantage of the low Mobility mesopelagic players have to deal with, thus being able to grief them easily. Additionally, it also helps them avoid the griefers that plague many **Icthyosaur**s from the lower tiers. Thus, they can easily capitalize on mesopelagic Squid players without having to deal with opportunistic griefers... most of the time. It is held back from S-tier due to this specialization, and even then, they cannot remain submerged forever.

#### Eurhinosaurus

An **Icthyosaur** build which specced into a bill with teeth, capable of swiping at fish back and forth. It is also as fast as Stenopterygius and has the Health to take a hit from a predator like Temnodontosaurus. However, this Icthyosaur can never be completely safe from its only griefer, as it still has to surface to breathe, and its overspecialization holds it down from reaching S-tier.

#### Shastasaurus

An Icthyosaur made playable when they hit the big time and suddenly became as big as Sperm Whales. It was a toothless Icthyosaur that required a specialization when it comes to finding loot, since dataminers have finally found out that it did not suction feed at all. Still, being able to tank a crap ton of hits, like Baleen Whales and Sauropod makes it one of the best Icthyosaurs in the game. However, it still does not crack S-tier, since tanking is the only thing special or meta-defining this build brought to the table, and the Icthyosaur builds in S-tier are able to be so cracked that they finally have access to griefing other Icthyosaurs as their source of loot.

### S-tier

#### Thalattoarchon

An icthyosaurian build that emerged really early after the Great Dying balance patch, this build sports powerful enough teeth to outright attack most other icthyosaur players if they wanted to, and they have decent Health and Mobility stat as well.

#### Himalayasaurus

Another top-tier Icthyosaur with similar attacking stats as Thalattoarchon, but with even higher Health stats. However, unlike the absolute best Icthyosaur, the Temnodontosaurus, it lacked the speed required to be Top S-tier.

#### Temnodontosaurus

The top-tier of The Abyssal servers during its time, with decent eyesight and great Health. Unlike the other two S-tiers on our list, this build had decent Mobility due to its more developed dolphin-like body. It can destroy absolutely any build if it wanted to, regardless if they want to go into deep waters or not.

## Referrences

1. ↑ https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/ichthyosauria.html
2. ↑ https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0194742
3. ↑ https://www.britannica.com/animal/ichthyosaur
4. ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4786747/
5. ↑ https://carnivora.net/chaohusaurus-spp-t837.html
6. ↑ http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/m/mixosaurus.html
7. ↑ https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2000/11/faster-speeding-tuna
8. ↑ http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/s/stenopterygius.html
9. ↑ http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/p/platypterygius.html
10. ↑ https://www.thoughtco.com/ichthyosaur-pictures-and-profiles-4084173
11. ↑ https://www.kronosauruskorner.com.au/museum/collections/platypterygius#:~:text=It%20is%20possible%20that%20Platypterygius%20dispatched%20such%20small-bodied%20prey,bite%20marks%20from%20other%20Platypterygius
12. ↑ https://www.kronosauruskorner.com.au/museum/collections/platypterygius#:~:text=It%20is%20possible%20that%20Platypterygius%20dispatched%20such%20small-bodied%20prey,bite%20marks%20from%20other%20Platypterygius
13. ↑ https://www.livescience.com/14022-ichthyosaur-ancient-sea-creature-fossils.html
14. ↑ https://www.thoughtco.com/ichthyosaur-pictures-and-profiles-4084173
15. ↑ http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/f2013/rohde\_abig/interactions.htm
16. ↑ https://carnivora.net/cymbospondylus-spp-t827.html
17. ↑ https://blog.everythingdinosaur.co.uk/blog/\_archives/2013/01/13/thalattoarchon-saurophagis-apex-predator-of-the-mid-triassic.html
18. ↑ http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/o/ophthalmosaurus.html
19. ↑ https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/ichthyosauria.html
20. ↑ http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/e/eurhinosaurus.html
21. ↑ https://a-z-animals.com/animals/shastasaurus/
22. ↑ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/ichthyosaurs-didnt-slurp-squid-after-all
23. ↑ http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/t/thalattoarchon.html
24. ↑ http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/t/temnodontosaurus.html
25. ↑ https://alchetron.com/Temnodontosaurus#:~:text=Temnodontosaurus%20were%20the%20top%20predators,to%20have%20such%20a%20diet.&text=The%20diet%20of%20Temnodontosaurus%20is,molluscs%2C%20fishes%20and%20marine%20reptiles.