The Great Dying' wiped

                  The Nothosaurus zhangi, named after the researcher who discovered the fossil 2008, is described in Nature Scientific Reports as being 22-feet-long.

                  Its unearthing suggests that other marine creatures recovered more broadly following the event known as the Permian–Triassic - or 'The Great Dying'.

The Great Dying

                 It occurred around 250 million years ago and was the worst extinction event of all time killing off 96 per cent of species. 

Today, all life on Earth is descended from the remaining four per cent of species that survived.

                  It is unknown what triggered the wipe-out - but some scientists have blamed it on a volcanic eruption.  

                  The creature is part of the Sauropterygia, a group of aquatic reptiles in the Triassic period (era lasting from 250million to 0.25million years ago) that evolved from ancestors living in the Permian period - which began 299 million years ago

                  The associated professor at Hefei University of Technology added: 'This predator is in the top of the prehistoric food web. Modern leopard seals from Antarctic might be an appropriate analogue for this giant predator from the ecological perspective.'

                    The fossil was one of 20,000 found on a mountain in China - including shellfish and pre-historic creatures - that revealed how life recovered after the worldwide extinction.