Unfortunately for Mosasaurus, few animals match Megalodon when it comes to sheer bite force. hoffmannii. [95], Unnatural fusion of tail vertebrae has been documented in Mosasaurus, which occurs when the bones remodel themselves after damage from trauma or disease. Aside from Zarafasaura in Morocco, plesiosaurs were scarce. [50], Paleontologists generally agree that Mosasaurus was likely an active predator of a variety of marine animals. Its tapered jaw measured around 4ft in length and could reach opening widths of around 3ft. [5] The quadrate also housed the hearing structures, with the eardrum residing within a round and concave depression in the outer surface called the tympanic ala.[60] The trachea likely stretched from the esophagus to below the back end of the lower jaw's coronoid process, where it split into smaller pairs of bronchi which extended parallel to each other. IRSNB R25 preserves a complete fracture near the sixth tooth socket. In terms of offensive powers, the mosasaurus and the liopleurodon are closely matched. [5], The palate, which consists of the pterygoid bones, palatine bone, and nearby processes of other bones, is tightly packed to provide greater cranial stability. In this case, there were signs of healing around the wound, implying survival of the incident. Some studies such as Madzia & Cau (2017) also recover, The 2018 MS thesis of Cyrus Green disputes the notion that, Two of the 15 surveyed fossils were reported from the, A dubious taxon that may represent various mosasaurs such as, National Museum of Natural History, France, collection of sculptures of prehistoric animals, Research history of Mosasaurus History of taxonomy, Mosasaur Relation with snakes or monitor lizards, International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "Recent mosasaur discoveries from New Jersey and Delaware, USA: stratigraphy, taphonomy and implications for mosasaur extinction", "Paleoecology of the Delaware Valley region, Part II: Cretaceous to Quaternary", "A mosasaur from the Maastrichtian Fox Hills Formation of the northern Western Interior Seaway of the United States and the synonymy of, "Of German princes and North American rivers: Harlan's lost mosasaur snout rediscovered", "Datum vondst mosasaurus ontdekt: in oktober 1778", "Conjectures relative to the petrifactions found in St. Peter's Mountain near Maestricht", "A Tabular Arrangement of the Organic Remains of the County of Sussex", Transactions of the Geological Society of London, "On the Remains of Extinct Reptiles of the genera, "Mosasauridae Translation and Pronunciation Guide", "Mmoire sur quelques parties moins connues du squelette des sauriens fossiles de Maestricht", "Premire note sur les Mosasauriens de Mesvin", "A new Plotosaurini mosasaur skull from the upper Maastrichtian of Antarctica. [16][17][18] This caught the attention of French revolutionaries, who looted the fossil following the capture of Maastricht during the French Revolutionary Wars in 1794. The fossil was delivered to Georg August Goldfuss in Bonn for research, who published a study in 1845. The powerful forces resulting from utilization of the paddles may have sometimes resulted in bone damage, as evidenced by a M. hoffmannii ilium with significant separation of the bone's head from the rest of the bone likely caused by frequent shearing forces at the articulation joint. [50], Like all mosasaurs, the lower jaws of Mosasaurus could swing forward and backward. [7][36] Compared to other mosasaurs, the rib cage of Mosasaurus is unusually deep and forms an almost perfect semicircle, giving it a barrel-shaped chest. Megalodon does have thick skin, but the truth is Mosasaurus teeth are designed to bite through shark skin. [72] The cladogram on the right (Topology B) is modified from Street's 2016 doctoral thesis proposing a revision to the Mosasaurinae, with proposed new taxa and renamings in single quotations. The Northern Interior Subprovince also saw a restructuring of mosasaur assemblages, characterized by the disappearance of mosasaurs like Platecarpus and their replacement by Mosasaurus and Plioplatecarpus. Who Would Win Mosasaurus Vs Spinosaurus? [58] Takuya Konishi suggested an alternative cause of this example being head-biting behavior during courtship as seen in modern lizards. There are two finely ulcerated scratches on the bone callus, which may have developed as part of the healing process. Changing temperatures and an abundance in marine life were characteristic of these localities. [22], The third species was described in 1881 from fragmentary fossils in New Jersey by Edward Drinker Cope, who thought it was a giant species of Clidastes and named it Clidastes conodon. hoffmannii had fourteen to sixteen maxillary teeth, fourteen to fifteen dentary teeth, and eight pterygoid teeth;[11][46][50] M. missouriensis had fourteen to fifteen maxillary teeth, fourteen to fifteen dentary teeth, and eight to nine pterygoid teeth;[9][42][64] M. conodon had fourteen to fifteen maxillary teeth, sixteen to seventeen dentary teeth, and eight pterygoid teeth;[11][42] M. lemonnieri had fifteen maxillary teeth, fourteen to seventeen dentary teeth, and eleven to twelve pterygoid teeth;[36][11][42] and M. beaugei had twelve to thirteen maxillary teeth, fourteen to sixteen dentary teeth, and six or more pterygoid teeth. The two mosasaurs Mosasaurus and Prognathodon appear to have been the dominant taxa, being widespread and ecologically diversified throughout the seaway. 1 mo. A new analysis published on Wednesday of fossils of the creature unearthed in 1975 has determined that it deserves to be recognized as a new genus of mosasaur based on skeletal traits including a. [49][79] Its elongated paddle-like limbs functioned as hydrofoils for maneuvering the animal. M. lemmonieri had the most vertebrae in the genus, with up to around forty dorsal vertebrae, twenty-two pygal vertebrae, and ninety caudal vertebrae. [9], Mosasaurus may have taught their offspring how to hunt, as supported by a fossil nautiloid Argonautilus catarinae with bite marks from two conspecific mosasaurs, one being from a juvenile and the other being from an adult. Two examples include IRSNB R25 and IRSNB R27, both having fractures and other pathologies in their dentaries. [37] In 1967, Dale Russell argued that M. lemonnieri and M. conodon are the same species and designated the former as a junior synonym per the principle of priority. [125], Known fossils of Mosasaurus have typically been recovered from deposits representing nearshore habitats during the Cretaceous period, with some fossils coming from deeper-water deposits. [7], Conrad uniquely used only M. hoffmannii and M. lemonnieri in his 2008 phylogenetic analysis, which recovered M. hoffmannii as basal to a multitude of descendant clades containing (in order of most to least basal) Globidens, M. lemonnieri, Goronyosaurus, and Plotosaurus. The swimming style was likely sub-carangiform, which is exemplified today by mackerels. The demise of the genus was likely a result of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event which also wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs. maximus, M. missouriensis, and M. conodon; by doing so, others like M. lemonnieri, which is one of the most completely known species in the genus, were neglected, which affected phylogenetic results. [109][110][111], The biogeography of the region has been subdivided into two Interior Subprovinces characterized by different climates and faunal structures, and their borders are separated in modern-day Kansas. The study found a dietary divide between M. missouriensis and Prognathodon overtoni based on stomach contents. This, along with signs of healing, indicates that the fractures were not imminently fatal. [53] Polcyn et al. A 2017 study by Hallie Street and Michael Caldwell performed the first proper diagnosis and description of the M. hoffmannii holotype, which allowed a major taxonomic cleanup confirming five species as likely validM. His calculations interpreted "body length" as the length of the postcranial body, not the total length of the animal as demonstrated in Russell (1967), This erroneously inflated the estimate by 10%. Other marine reptiles such as the marine monitor lizard Pachyvaranus and the sea snake Palaeophis are known there. The first Mosasaurus fossil known to science was discovered in 1764 in a chalk quarry near Maastricht in the Netherlands in the form of a skull, which was initially identified as a whale. The genus adapted by accessing new habitats in more open waters. [5][102] Other mosasaurs from the southern Tethyan margin include the enigmatic Goronyosaurus, the shell-crushers Igdamanosaurus and Carinodens, Eremiasaurus, four other species of Prognathodon, and various other species of Halisaurus. Mosasaurus was a common large predator in these oceans and was positioned at the top of the food chain. The third case was determined to be caused by a form of arthritis based on the formation of smooth bridging between fused vertebrae. [55] Paul (2022) offered a larger maximum estimate for the species at 12 meters (39ft) in length and 4.5 metric tons (5.0 short tons) in body mass. These species include one comparable with M. lemonnieri, and another that appears to be closely related to M. Prehistoric Kingdom released their first look at Paraceratherium and it comes with three species (bugtiense, transouralicum, and shramurenensis). [47][48][49], The type species, M. hoffmannii, is one of the largest marine reptiles known,[50][46] though knowledge of its skeleton remains incomplete as it is mainly known from skulls. 1 / 5. [53], The skull of Mosasaurus is conical and tapers off to a short snout which extends a little beyond the frontmost teeth. The exact year is not fully certain due to multiple contradicting claims. [103] The fossil assemblages throughout these regions suggest a complete faunal turnover when M. missouriensis and M. conodon appeared at 79.5 Ma, indicating that the presence of Mosasaurus in the Western Interior Seaway had a profound impact on the restructuring of marine ecosystems. Incorporating the species M. missouriensis, M. conodon, M. maximus, and an indeterminate specimen (UNSM 77040), some of his findings agreed with Russell (1967), such as Mosasaurus descending from an ancestral group containing Clidastes and M. conodon being the most basal of the genus. [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. [109] Mosasaurus continued to be the dominant genus in the seaway until the end of the Navesinkan Age at the end of the Cretaceous. The latter rendered Mosasaurus paraphyletic (an unnatural grouping), but Bell (1997) nevertheless recognized Plotosaurus as a distinct genus. [83] It may have also been a factor that allowed Mosasaurus to thrive in the colder climates of locations such as Antarctica. However, it is possible that such specimens may actually represent Moanasaurus, although this depends on the outcome of a pending revision of the genus. (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.) It has been pointed out how 13C can be influenced by other factors in an animal's lifestyle, such as diet and diving behavior. There is also evidence of aggressive interspecific combat between Mosasaurus and other large mosasaur species. The study also held four additional species from Pacific depositsM. Tylosaurus was the third new genus of mosasaur to be described from North America behind Clidastes and Platecarpus and the first in Kansas. The earliest fossils of Mosasaurus known to science were found as skulls in a chalk quarry near the Dutch city of Maastricht in the late 18th century, which were initially thought to have been the bones of crocodiles or whales. 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