What kind of animal is a mosasaur?

What type of animal is a mosasaur?

Mosasaurus (/ˌmoʊzəˈsɔːrəs/; “lizard of the Meuse River”) is the type genus (defining example) of the mosasaurs, an extinct group of aquatic squamate reptiles. It lived from about 82 to 66 million years ago during the Campanian and Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous. How big is a mosasaur?

How long did Mosasaurus live?

It lived from about 82 to 66 million years ago during the Campanian and Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous. 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.

Are mosasaurs carnivores?

Highly-adapted marine reptiles called mosasaurs became the apex predators of the Earth’s oceans in the last 25 million years of the Late Cretaceous. Returning to the sea during Cenomanian-Turonian time, they evolved from 1 m, shore-dwelling lizards into a variety of large (up to 17 m), fully marine carnivores. Their remains have been found in.

How big do mosasaurs get?

The larger mosasaurs, such as Tylosaurus, Hainosaurus and Mosasaurus, reached sizes of 10–15 m (33–49 ft) long and were apex predators of the Late Cretaceous oceans, attacking other marine reptiles, as well as preying on large fish and ammonites.

When did Mosasaurus exist?

Mosasaurus (/ˌmoʊzəˈsɔːrəs/; lizard of the Meuse River) is a genus of mosasaurs, extinct carnivorous aquatic lizards. It existed during the Maastrichtian age of the late Cretaceous period, between about 70 and 66 million years ago, in western Europe and North America.

What is the difference between a dinosaur and a mosasaur?

The term “dinosaur” is actually very specific and describes only the land-dwelling descendants of the “ruling reptiles”, the archosaurs. Mosasaurs, on the other hand, are more closely related to modern-day lizards.

Are mosasaurs lizards?

Mosasaurs are a large diverse group of mostly marine reptiles that lived from the mid to the late Cretaceous period. They evolved from small lizard-like squamates like Aigialosaurus. These early ancestors of the mosasaurs would have been spending at least some of their life in water.

What do mosasaurs eat?

Mosasaurs are a group of marine lizards that would have lived in the Badlands area from about 75-69 million years ago. When they were alive, mosasaurs could reach lengths of up to 50 feet, which is roughly the length of a bus! Mosasaurs were top predators of the world’s oceans and would eat anything they could catch.

How big can Mosasaurus get?

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. Traditional interpretations have estimated the maximum length of the largest species, M. hoffmannii, to be up to 17.1 meters (56 ft), making it one of the largest mosasaurs.

What is a mosasaur lizard?

mosasaur, (family Mosasauridae), extinct group of aquatic lizards that attained a high degree of adaptation to the marine environment and were distributed worldwide during the Cretaceous Period (145.5 million to 66 million years ago).

Was Mosasaurus a scavenger?

It is unlikely Mosasaurus was a scavenger as it had a poor sense of smell. Mosasaurus was among the largest marine animals of its time, and with its large, robust cutting teeth, scientists believe larger members of the genus would have been able to handle virtually any animal.

How did mosasaurs evolve into marine predators?

CONCLUSION During the last 25 million years of the Cretaceous, mosasaurs evolved relatively quickly from small shore-dwelling lizards into the dominant marine predators in the oceans of the Earth.

Are mosasaurs related to lizards today?

Today, evolutionary biologists believe they were most closely related to modern-day snakes and monitor lizards. The mosasaurs themselves went extinct 65 million years ago, along with their dinosaur and pterosaur cousins, by which time they may already have been succumbing to competition from better-adapted sharks.

What is the difference between a reptile and a dinosaur?

Reptiles, such as crocodiles and lizards, have legs that sprawl out to the side. Their thigh bones are almost parallel to the ground. They walk and run with a side-to-side motion. Dinosaurs, on the other hand, stand with their legs positioned directly under their bodies. A hole in the hip socket permits this upright stance.

What does mosasaurs mean in Greek?

Mosasaurs (from Latin Mosa meaning the ‘Meuse river’, and Greek σαύρος sauros meaning ‘lizard’) comprise a group of extinct, large marine reptiles containing 38 genera in total.

Should monitor lizards be classified as mosasaurs?

Opponents supporting a relationship with monitor lizards argued that mosasaurs should be placed within the infraorder Anguimorpha, with lower classifications varying from placing mosasaurs within Varanoidea or its sister taxa, or as true monitor lizards within Varanidae.

What is a Mosasaurus fossil?

This fossil was the first of its kind to be identified in such a manner, and soon a slew of other extinct marine animals would be classified as long-dead reptiles. Mosasaurus would join several other species just like itself in a huge family of warm-blooded marine lizards now known as the mosasaurs.

What do mosasaur stomachs eat?

Mosasaurs were huge animals, and they needed to eat in order to sustain their huge size. Paleontologists have discovered the preserved remains of mosasaur stomachs which contain food like fish, sharks, cephalopods, birds, and even other mosasaurs.

Which reptile is most similar to monitor lizards?

In the Cretaceous, Mosasaur may have evolved from this reptile that is most similar to monitor lizards. Ichthyosaurs went extinct in the last 20 million years of the Cretaceous, and plesiosaurs began to disappear. This left the mosasaurs as a prominent marine predator.

Is a Mosasaurus a marine reptile?

Mosasaurus is an extinct genus of mosasaurs that and lived in the Late Cretaceous and was from the order Squamata which includes lizards, snakes, and tuataras. So both Marine Reptiles will be duking it out.

How was Mosasaurus able to coexist with other large predatory mosasaurs?

Mosasaurus was able to coexist with other large predatory mosasaurs like Prognathodon through niche partitioning. Mosasaurus lived alongside other large predatory mosasaurs also considered apex predators, most prominent among them being the tylosaurines and Prognathodon.