Information about Mosasaurus

Mosasaurus Fossil range: Late Cretaceous
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Sauropsida Order: Squamata Suborder: Lacertilia Family: Mosasauridae Subfamily: Mosasaurinae Genus: Mosasaurus
Species
M. copeanus M. crassidens M. hoffmanni M. meirsii M. princeps M. beaugei M. conodon

Mosasaurus (IPA pronunciation: ['mozəˌsɔrʊs]) ("lizard of the Meuse River") was a genus of mosasaur, a carnivorous, aquatic lizard, somewhat resembling a flippered crocodile, with elongated heavy jaws. The genus lived in the Maastrichtian age of the Cretaceous period (Mesozoic era), around 70-65 millions years ago. The name means "Meuse lizard", as it was found near the Meuse River (Latin Mosa + Greek sauros lizard). As with most mosasaurs, their legs and feet are modified into hydrofoil-like flippers, with the forelimbs larger than the hindlimbs. The first mosasaur ever discovered, Mosasaurus hoffmanni, was excavated in a mine near Maastricht, the Netherlands in the 1770s. Like its relatives Tylosaurus and Hainosaurus, Mosasaurus reached lengths of about 15 meters. However, Mosasaurus was much more robust than tylosaurine mosasaurs, at some double the weight of a mosasaur of the same length. In life, a 10 m long Mosasaurus was as heavy as a 15 m long Tylosaurus .

Mosasaurus was among the last mosasaur genera, and among the largest. The skull was more robustly built than other mosasaurs, as the mandibles articulated very tightly with the skull. It had a deep, barrel-shaped body, and with its fairly large eyes, poor binocular vision, and poorly developed olfactory bulbs, experts believe that Mosasaurus lived near the ocean surface, where it preyed on fish, turtles, ammonites, and possibly smaller mosasaurs. Because of its robust skull and tightly articulating jaws, Mosasaurus was unable to swallow prey-items whole in the manner of earlier mosasaurs, such as Tylosaurus . Instead, with the aid of its curved, knife-like teeth, Mosasaurus was able to tear its prey into more manageable pieces that could be more easily swallowed. As mentioned before, Mosasaurus was discovered near the town of Maastricht, located at the southernmost tip of the Netherlands. The city is largely built with blocks of limestone from the town's quarry. In 1770, the local Dutch army physician, Dr Hoffmann, who had developed an interest in the strange bones that kept showing up in these blocks of limestone, paid the quarrymen extra to look out for especially large specimens. The best of these was found in 1774, and it was named Mosasaurus hoffmanni. It was a very controversial find, as the skull belonged clearly to a species that no longer existed on earth, and it raised the first speculations on the possibility of animal species going extinct. The idea of extinction paved the way for the theory of "several creations", one of the predecessors of the evolution theory. A few years after the find, the French armies occupied Maastricht and the fossil skull was taken to Paris, where it is still on display in the "Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle",

In 1998, another, even bigger and more intact fossil Mosasaurus skull was found in the Maastricht limestone quarries. It was nicknamed "Ber" and it is currently on display in the Maastricht Natural History Museum.

Relatives

The family Mosasauridae is split into several subfamilies, with Mosasaurus being placed within Mosasaurinae. This subfamily, in turn, is further split into smaller tribes, with Mosasaurus being grouped with Clidastes, Moanasaurus, Amphekepubis, and Liodon in the tribe Mosasaurini.

In Popular Culture

A Mosasaurus appeared in an episode of the 2007 TV series Primeval. The mosasaur was shown to have an armoured crocodile-like body, but in reality it would have been smooth-skinned and streamlined. In addition, it was portrayed to swallow a lifeguard whole — even though its jaw and enlarged neck muscles are best suited to tear and rip prey apart.

A group of Mosasaurus are seen in the Rite of Spring segment of Walt Disney's Fantasia, where one eats a Pteranodon.

External links

• Mosasauridae Translation and Pronunciation Guide http://www.dinosauria.com/dml/names/mosa.html
• Oceans of Kansas http://www.oceansofkansas.com
• Natural History Museum of Maastricht in the Netherlands http://www.nhmmaastricht.nl/TExtonLy-nl/col_gki.htm
• Dutch Wikipedia on Mosasaurus