THE LIFE OF A

Although ths Posidonia Shale is notable for its open ocean environments, it also covers near shore waters. In these idyllic islands that will one day form the european continent, life grows and evolves in ways far different from the sea.

Here, insects thrive, like this Liassopsychops curvatus. This species of large winged insect may look like a butterfly, but it is in fact a large lacewing that specialized for pollinating primitive plants. Its peculiar eyespots on the wings are a neat strategy to dissuade predators that may confuse the eye-like markings from those of a larger predator.

But flying in these open coastal skies, this insect must still be cautious.

It probably won't like to be sprayed out of the sky.

This spray comes from an adult male Palaeopleurosaurus posidoniae, that releases excess salt through these weird sneezes. This male is named Prasad.

Prasad is not alone. In these beaches, several Palaeopleurosaurus come to rest and bask. These may resemble the strange marine iguanas that live in the modern day Galapagos. However, these are actually distant relatives of the modern tuatara of the New Zealand. Back in the Jurassic, relatives of the tuataras, known as rhynchocephalians, were widespread across the globe and occupied several different niches, with Palaeopleurosaurus being the oldest known species of this group to colonize marine environments. However, despite its elongated body and tail, and heavily reduced limbs, it still requires to, awkwardly, come to land.

Palaeopleurosaurus live with a diet of small fish, crustaceans and mollusks that they find as they submerge in the sea.

However, everytime they do so, they're risking being captured by a predator, and in the Posidonia Shale, there are many ways to go.

Prasad frequently comes to land for that purpose, but today he is aiming another. He is looking for a mate.

Prasad is not the only one to have this idea, though. Such aggregations attract a lot of opportunities for mating, and many males try their luck, slithering through the sand banks in search of an available female.

Large males also roam this beach, and will often dominate over smaller ones for mating rights.

Females themselves prefer larger males, which is inconvenient for Prasad, which is a smaller male. But that may just be in his own favour.

When two large males meet, a territorial dispute follows.

They will begin by showing off their teeth. Usually this is enough to scare a rival off, but if neither backs down... a fight will follow.

Fights between males can be violent, though awkward and slow. This conflict in particular may very well last hours.

This allows Prasad to sneak into a lone female, while the other larger males are busy.

He proceeds to approach her. He inflates his neck to appear larger than it is.

His head bobs don't seem to be causing repulsion to the female.

Meanwhile, the fight between the dominant males continues, and it seems to have been attracting an audience of other females looking for a mate.

Prasad is scoring. Palaeopleurosaurus have a rudimentary hemipenes, which makes penetration harder, and so the cloacas of the male and the female have to touch to guarantee the passing of the sperm. Because copulation is awkward and slow, with the male having to lift the long tail of the female to perform it, they have to be very effective and rapid to make sure they can mate before a rival male comes in. At least, to compensate, their sperm cells are very fast for a reptile.

The new large male has managed to outcompete the other resident dominant male. For the following days, he will hopefully dominate this shore, bullying out other intruding males and monopolizing the resident females... or at least so he thinks.

Females only mate with one male every year. If the dominant male makes a move on this one, she will refuse. Prasad, however, will attempt to mate with as many females as he can. Over the course of his adult life, he has sneaked into larger male territories, appropriating moments of distraction to ensure that he can continue the life of a Palaeopleurosaurus.

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