", "A new halisaurine mosasaur (Squamata: Halisaurinae) from Japan: the first record in the western Pacific realm and the first documented insights into binocular vision in mosasaurs", "Mosasaur Predation on Upper Cretaceous Nautiloids and Ammonites from the United States Pacific Coast", 10.1669/0883-1351(2004)019<0096:MPOUCN>2.0.CO;2, "Mosasaur ascending: the phytogeny of bends", "Juvenile marine reptiles from the Late Cretaceous of the Antarctic peninsula and their relationships to other such occurrences in central South Dakota and Belgium", "Occurrence of Mosasaurus hoffmannii Mantell, 1829 (Squamata, Mosasauridae) in the Maastrichtian Phosphates of Morocco", "A cool temperate climate on the Antarctic Peninsula through the latest Cretaceous to early Paleogene", "Ray-finned fishes (Osteichthyes, Actinopterygii) from the type Maastrichtian, the Netherlands and Belgium", "A new species of longirostrine plioplatecarpine mosasaur (Squamata: Mosasauridae) from the Late Cretaceous of Morocco, with a re-evaluation of the problematic taxon, 10.1671/0272-4634(2002)022[0091:sdahso]2.0.co;2, "An Overview of Late Cretaceous Vertebrates from Alabama", "A New Hypothesis of the Phylogenetic Relationships of the Tylosaurinae (Squamata: Mosasauroidea)", 10.1671/0272-4634(2003)23[89:tpanes]2.0.co;2, 10.1666/0022-3360(2005)079[0969:anpprs]2.0.co;2, "Vertebrate Paleontology of the Pierre Shale and Fox Hills Formations (Late Campanian-Late Maastrichtian) of Badlands National Park, South Dakota", "Extinction patterns, 18 O trends, and magnetostratigraphy from a southern high-latitude CretaceousPaleogene section: Links with Deccan volcanism", "A new elasmosaurid from the upper Maastrichtian Lpez de Bertodano Formation: new data on weddellonectian diversity", "Before and after the K/Pg extinction in West Antarctica: New marine fish records from Marambio (Seymour) Island", 10.1671/0272-4634(2005)025[0473:mrsmft]2.0.co;2, "GEOL 104 Lecture 38: The Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction III: Not With a Bang, But a Whimper", "Global climate change driven by soot at the K-Pg boundary as the cause of the mass extinction", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mosasaurus&oldid=1148298057, This page was last edited on 5 April 2023, at 08:57. [102] Many types of sharks such as Squalicorax, Cretalamna, Serratolamna, and sand sharks,[105] as well as bony fish such as Cimolichthys, the saber-toothed herring Enchodus, and the swordfish-like Protosphyraena are represented in the northern Tethyan margin. It was not stated whether they applied Russell's 1967 ratio. Paleontologists believe its diet would have included virtually any animal; it likely preyed on bony fish, sharks, cephalopods, birds, and other marine reptiles including sea turtles and other mosasaurs. To give you some perspective, the average human can exert a force as great as 268 pounds per square inch (psi) using their molars. 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. [9][50][61], A study published in 2013 by Schulp and colleagues specifically tested how mosasaurs such as M. hoffmannii and P. saturator were able to coexist in the same localities through 13C analysis. Megalodon only had bite force, size, and bulk. [88][126] Lingham-Soliar (1995) elaborated on this, finding that Maastrichtian deposits in the Netherlands with M. hoffmannii occurrences represented nearshore waters around 4050 meters (130160ft) deep. [10] In M. missouriensis, the bar is robust and does not constrict. Rather than being fused together, extensive cartilage likely connected the ribs with the sternum, which would have facilitated breathing movements and compression when in deeper waters. However, it is possible that such specimens may actually represent Moanasaurus, although this depends on the outcome of a pending revision of the genus. [65] Chemical studies conducted on a M. hoffmannii maxillary tooth measured an average rate of deposition of odontoblasts, the cells responsible for the formation of dentin, at 10.9 micrometers (0.00043in) per day. [31] In 1966, it was reidentified as a species of Mosasaurus. [40], The fifth species M. beaugei was described by Camille Arambourg in 1952 from isolated teeth originating from phosphate deposits in the Oulad Abdoun Basin and the Ganntour Basin in Morocco. It was approximated that it took the odontoblasts 511 days and dentin 233 days to develop to the extent observed in the tooth. [53] With a skull measuring around 97.7 centimeters (38.5in) in length, M. conodon has been regarded as a small to medium-sized representative of the genus;[11] Paul (2022) estimated its maximum length as being 7m (23ft) and body mass as being 900kg (2,000lb). The positioning of both bite marks are at the direction the nautiloid's head would have been facing, indicating it was incapable of escaping and was thus already sick or dead during the attacks; it is possible this phenomenon was from a parent mosasaur teaching its offspring about cephalopods as an alternate source of prey and how to hunt one. [11] The ilium is rod-like and slender; in M. missouriensis, it is around 1.5 times longer than the femur. The overall structure of the paddle is compressed, similar to in Plotosaurus, and was well-suited for faster swimming. Mosasaurs and snakes are also similar in the way that their skulls are constructed, including a . they have 100 lbs bite force What is the bite force of a liger? ; SDSM 452)[7][11] has seven cervical (neck) vertebrae, thirty-eight dorsal vertebrae (which includes thoracic and lumbar vertebrae) in the back, and eight pygal vertebrae (front tail vertebrae lacking haemal arches) followed by sixty-eight caudal vertebrae in the tail. [129][130] The last fossils of Mosasaurus, which include those of M. hoffmannii and indeterminate species, occur up to the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary (K-Pg boundary). [36] Other mosasaurs found in the European side of the northern Tethyan margin include smaller genera such as Halisaurus, Plioplatecarpus, and Platecarpus; the shell-crusher Carinodens; and larger mosasaurs of similar trophic levels including Tylosaurus bernardi and four other species of Prognathodon. [129] As well as physical destruction, the impact also blocked out sunlight[132] leading to a collapse of marine food webs. This was likely a severe bone infection initiated by septic arthritis, which progressed to the point where a large portion of the quadrate was reduced to abscess. [112][103][113], In what is now Alabama within the Southern Interior Subprovince, most of the key genera including sharks like Cretoxyrhina and the mosasaurs Clidastes, Tylosaurus, Globidens, Halisaurus, and Platecarpus disappeared and were replaced by Mosasaurus. Mosasaurus was a common large predator in these oceans and was positioned at the top of the food chain. In many mosasaurs like Prognathodon and M. lemonnieri, this function mainly served to allow ratchet feeding, in which the pterygoid and jaws would "walk" captured prey into the mouth like a conveyor belt. This giant shark is 25 m in length (82 ft) and swims up to 17 m/s (55 ft/s). They belong to the order Squamata, which includes lizards and snakes . The Mediterranean Tethys during the Maastrichtian stage was located in what is now Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. [30] The same year, Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer suspected that the skull and Harlan's snout were part of the same individual. Mosasaurs (from Latin Mosa meaning the ' Meuse ', and Greek sauros meaning 'lizard') comprise a group of extinct, large marine reptiles from the Late Cretaceous. The cause of the infection remains unknown, but if it were a result of an intraspecific attack then it is possible one of the openings on the quadrate may have been the point of entry for an attacker's tooth from which the infection entered. Other marine reptiles such as the marine monitor lizard Pachyvaranus and the sea snake Palaeophis are known there. Lingham-Soliar may have misapplied the ratio. [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. Many of the Mosasaurus fossils from the Main Fossiliferous Layer consist of isolated bones commonly abraded and worn, but the layer also yielded better-preserved Mosasaurus remains. and that their bite force didnt matter but the 'venom' they inflicted did.I havent seen any paper on mosasaurs having venom. [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. [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. The foramina along the snout form a pattern similar to the foramina in Clidastes skulls. [5][50] In M. hoffmannii, this snout is blunt,[5] while in M. lemonnieri it is pointed. Although there is no direct evidence specific to the genus, studies on the biochemistry of related mosasaur genera such as Clidastes[p] suggests that endothermy was likely present in all mosasaurs. 1 mo. [129] Any Mosasaurus surviving the immediate cataclysms by taking refuge in deeper waters would have died out due to starvation from a loss of prey. [7][13], In 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition discovered a now-lost fossil skeleton alongside the Missouri River, which was identified as a 45-foot (14m) long fish. [93], There are some M. hoffmannii jaws with evidence of infectious diseases as a result of physical injuries. There is no evidence for live birth in Mosasaurus itself, but it is known in a number of other mosasaurs;[97] examples include a skeleton of a pregnant Carsosaurus,[97] a Plioplatecarpus fossil associated with fossils of two mosasaur embryos,[98] and fossils of newborn Clidastes from pelagic (open ocean) deposits. [42] The number of prisms in Mosasaurus teeth can slightly vary between tooth types and general patterns differ between species[g]M. An examination of existing historical evidence by Pieters et al., (2012) suggested the most accurate date would be on or around 1780. Mosasaurus ( / mozsrs /; "lizard of the Meuse River ") is the type genus (defining example) of the mosasaurs, an extinct group of aquatic squamate reptiles. Mosasaurus faced competition with other large predatory mosasaurs such as Prognathodon and Tylosauruswhich were known to feed on similar preythough they were able to coexist in the same ecosystems through niche partitioning. conodon. The restoration was primarily informed by Richard Owen's interpretation of the M. hoffmannii holotype and the anatomy of monitor lizards, so Hawkins depicted the animal as essentially a water-going monitor lizard. 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%. [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. 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