[83][84][85][86], Mosasaurus had relatively large eye sockets[50] with large sclerotic rings occupying much of the sockets' diameter;[36] the latter is correlated with eye size and suggests it had good vision. [7][36] Despite being the best anatomically represented species, M. lemonnieri was largely ignored in scientific literature. M. lemmonieri had the most vertebrae in the genus, with up to around forty dorsal vertebrae, twenty-two pygal vertebrae, and ninety caudal vertebrae. There are some other species of mosasaur that specialised in eating this kind of prey so they had stronger bites than Mosasaurus who was a generalist predator so it would take anything that fit into its mouth, not unlike tiger sharks today. [30] The same year, Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer suspected that the skull and Harlan's snout were part of the same individual. [50] The species likely hunted near the ocean surface as an ambush predator, using its large two-dimensionally adapted eyes to more effectively spot and capture prey. Many elements of the sculpture can be considered inaccurate, even for the time. This study was conducted on only one tooth and may not represent the exact durations of, The number of caudal vertebrae is not fully certain for, Street & Caldwell (2017) revised this assessment of. Various partial skeletons of M. conodon, M. hoffmannii, and M. missouriensis suggest M. conodon likely had up to thirty-six dorsal vertebrae and nine pygal vertebrae; M. hoffmannii had likely up to thirty-two dorsal vertebrae and ten pygal vertebrae;[i][11][36] and M. missouriensis around thirty-three dorsal vertebrae, eleven pygal vertebrae, and at least seventy-nine caudal vertebrae. fossils from Alabama, the Demopolis Chalk, and the Hornerstown Formation. [42] One indeterminate specimen of Mosasaurus similar to M. conodon from the Pembina Gorge State Recreation Area in North Dakota was found to have an unusual count of sixteen pterygoid teeth, far greater than in known species. [112] Some Niobraran genera such as Tylosaurus,[115] Cretoxyrhina,[116] hesperornithids,[117] and plesiosaurs including elasmosaurs such as Terminonatator[118] and polycotylids like Dolichorhynchops[119] maintained their presence until around the end of the Campanian, during which the entire Western Interior Seaway started receding from the north. Traditional interpretations have estimated the maximum length of the largest species, M. hoffmannii, to be up to 17.1 meters (56ft), making it one of the largest mosasaurs, although some scientists consider this an overestimation with recent estimates suggesting a length closer to 13 meters (43ft). The genus adapted by accessing new habitats in more open waters. Extensive amounts of bone reparative tissue were also present, suggesting the infection and subsequent healing process may have progressed for a few months. [13] Later around 1780,[a] the quarry produced a second skull that caught the attention of the physician Johann Leonard Hoffmann, who thought it was a crocodile. These cranial structures are united by strong interlocking sutures formed to resist compression and shear forces caused by a downward thrust of the lower jaw muscles or an upward thrust of prey. There were still conflicts among them, as an instance of Tylosaurus attacking a Mosasaurus has been documented. [7] Russell (1967) wrote that the length of the jaw equalled one tenth of the body length in the species. Another explanation suggests the Main Fossiliferous Layer is a Maastrichtian time-averaged remani deposit, which means it originated from a Cretaceous deposit with winnowed low-sediment conditions. [102] Multiple oceanic climate zones encompassed the seaways, including tropical, subtropical, temperate, and subpolar climates. These localities are all shallow ocean deposits, suggesting that juvenile Mosasaurus may still have lived in shallow waters.[100]. Both of these dinosaurs have extremely powerful jaws and rows and rows of sharp teeth, though the bite force of the mosasaurus is more powerful than the bite force of the liopleurodon. This creates a rigid three-pivot geometric cranial structure. One skull discovered around 1780, which was seized by France during the French Revolutionary Wars for its scientific value, was famously nicknamed the "great animal of Maastricht". [58][90] In 2006, Schulp and colleagues speculated that Mosasaurus may have occasionally engaged in cannibalism as a result of intraspecific aggression. Megalodon was 63 feet. The parietal foramen in Mosasaurus, which is associated with the parietal eye, is the smallest among mosasaurids. This rigid but highly shock-absorbent structure of the cranium likely allowed a powerful bite force. [49], The forelimbs of Mosasaurus are wide and robust. Mosasaurus probably had a strong bite force due to eating prey like giant turtles in its time. The two mosasaurs Mosasaurus and Prognathodon appear to have been the dominant taxa, being widespread and ecologically diversified throughout the seaway. [35][33] Further mining of the quarry in subsequent years uncovered many additional well-preserved fossils, including multiple partial skeletons which collectively represented nearly the entire skeleton of the species. The exact year is not fully certain due to multiple contradicting claims. [50], In modern lizards, the mechanical build of the skull is characterized by a four-pivot geometric structure in the cranium that allows flexible movement of the jaws, possibly to allow the animals to better position them and prevent prey escape when hunting. It was given a boxy head, nostrils at the side of the skull, large volumes of soft tissue around the eyes, lips reminiscent of monitor lizards, scales consistent with those in large monitors like the Komodo dragon, and a flipper. Aside from Zarafasaura in Morocco, plesiosaurs were scarce. What do you think? "The only plausible attacker with sufficient bite force to penetrate the cortical bone to such an extent is another mosasaur," Bastiaans and his team concluded, identifying the wound as a "tooth strike lesion." The infection ended up being worse than the bite. This concept was revolutionary at the time and helped support the then-developing ideas of extinction. 1 / 5. The exact affinities of Mosasaurus as a squamate remain controversial, and scientists continue to debate whether its closest living relatives are monitor lizards or snakes. This does not mean Mosasaurus and its associated fauna survived the K-Pg extinction. Herschel Hoffmeyer/Shutterstock.com It lived from about 82 to 66 million years ago during the Campanian and Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous. Cuvier did not designate a scientific name for the new animal, and this was done by William Daniel Conybeare in 1822 when he named it Mosasaurus in reference to its origin in fossil deposits near the Meuse River. It is geographically subdivided into two biogeographic provinces that respectively include the northern and southern Tethyan margins. This was based on fossils like the M. missouriensis holotype, which indicated an elastic vertebral column that Goldfuss in 1845 saw as evidence of an ability to walk and interpretations of some phalanges as claws. Unfortunately for Mosasaurus, few animals match Megalodon when it comes to sheer bite force. There is considerable morphological variability across the currently-recognized species in Mosasaurusfrom the robustly-built M. hoffmannii to the slender and serpentine M. lemonnieribut an unclear diagnosis (description of distinguishing features) of the type species M. hoffmannii led to a historically problematic classification. Based on measurements of various Belgian skeletons, Dollo estimated M. lemonnieri grew to around 7 to 10 meters (23 to 33ft) in length. (Interestingly, the dog you'd expect to see on this list, the pit bull, can only muster a bite force of 250 PSI, about the same as a full-grown human.) [123] Prognathodon and Globidens are also expected to be present based on distribution trends of both genera, although conclusive fossils have yet to be found. Previous studies demonstrated that ratios of these three elements can act as a proxy for relative ocean depth of a fossil during early diagenesis without interference from biological processes, with each of the three elements signifying either shallow, deep, or fresh waters. The genus existed during the Maastrichtian age of the Cretaceous period (Mesozoic era), around 70-65 million years ago in the area of modern Western Europe and North America. The margin provided a warm-temperate climate with habitats dominated by mosasaurs and sea turtles. Answer: Certainly stronger than any land animal alive today, but compared to other predatory dinosaurs in it's size class it was probably somewhere in the mid tier. The overall structure of the paddle is compressed, similar to in Plotosaurus, and was well-suited for faster swimming. Its tail was long and ended in a downward bend and a paddle-like fluke. This was confirmed in 2004. The dentaries ahead of the fractures in both specimens are in good condition, suggesting that the arteries and trigeminal nerves had not been damaged; if they were, those areas would have necrotized due to lack of blood. [75], The following cladogram on the left (Topology A) is modified from a maximum clade credibility tree inferred by a Bayesian analysis in the most recent major phylogenetic analysis of the Mosasaurinae subfamily by Madzia & Cau (2017), which was self-described as a refinement of a larger study by Simes et al. [11][32] In his description, Cope does not provide the etymology for the specific epithet conodon,[31] but it is suggested that it could be a portmanteau meaning "conical tooth", derived from the Ancient Greek (knos, "cone") and (odn, "tooth"), probably in reference to conical surface teeth smooth of the species. The Mediterranean Tethys during the Maastrichtian stage was located in what is now Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. [39] However, the need for more research to confirm any hypotheses of synonymy was expressed. As such, it had a streamlined body, an elongated tail ending with a downturn supporting a two-lobed fin, and two pairs of flippers. On the upper jaw, there were three types: the premaxillary teeth, maxillary teeth, and pterygoid teeth. hoffmannii. [14] By 1808, Camper's son Adriaan Gilles Camper and Georges Cuvier concluded that the fossil,[16] which by then was nicknamed the "great animal of Maastricht",[13] belonged to a marine lizard with affinities to monitor lizards, but otherwise unlike any modern animal.

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