[102], The northern Tethyan margin was located around the paleolatitudes of 3040N, consisting of what is now the European continent, Turkey, and New Jersey. This is one indication of niche partitioning, where the two mosasaur genera likely foraged in different habitats or had different specific diets to coexist without direct competitive conflict. [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. The cutting edges in M. hoffmannii and M. missouriensis are finely serrated,[5][10] while in M. conodon and M. lemonnieri serrations do not exist. As a result, more than fifty different species have been attributed to the genus in the past. [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. [38][71][74], One of the earliest relevant attempts at an evolutionary study of Mosasaurus was done by Russell in 1967. [d][50] No explicit justification for the 1:10 ratio was provided in Russell (1967),[38] and it has been considered to be probably overestimated by Cleary et al. Unfortunately for Mosasaurus, few animals match Megalodon when it comes to sheer bite force. 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. This giant shark is 25 m in length (82 ft) and swims up to 17 m/s (55 ft/s). [77] However, the study used a method unorthodox to traditional phylogenetic studies on mosasaur species because its focus was on the relationships of entire squamate groups rather than mosasaur classification. they have 100 lbs bite force What is the bite force of a liger? Tylosaurus was the third new genus of mosasaur to be described from North America behind Clidastes and Platecarpus and the first in Kansas. conodon. [58][90] In 2006, Schulp and colleagues speculated that Mosasaurus may have occasionally engaged in cannibalism as a result of intraspecific aggression. maximus-hoffmanni. [50], Mosasaurus swam using its tail. According to one hypothesis, the fossils may have originated from an earlier Cretaceous deposit and were reworked into the Paleocene formation during its early deposition. [129], One enigmatic occurrence of Mosasaurus sp. The dentaries' condition suggests that the species may have had an efficient process of immobilizing the fracture during healing, which helped prevent damage to vital blood vessels and nerves. It has been pointed out how 13C can be influenced by other factors in an animal's lifestyle, such as diet and diving behavior. [50] It is unlikely Mosasaurus was a scavenger as it had a poor sense of smell. [19] Cuvier's idea that there existed an animal unlike any today was revolutionary at the time, and in 1812 he proclaimed, "Above all, the precise determination of the famous animal from Maastricht seems to us as important for the theory of zoological laws, as for the history of the globe. Join. The morphological build of M. hoffmannii, nevertheless, was best adapted for a pelagic surface lifestyle. 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. Several fossils document deliberate attacks on Mosasaurus individuals by members of the same species. [50], 13C is also correlated with a marine animal's feeding habitat as isotope levels deplete when habitat is farther from the shoreline, so some scientists interpreted isotope levels as a proxy for habitat preference. Mosasaurus was 40 feet. 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. [102] Mosasaurus was not well-represented: the distribution of M. beaugei was restricted to Morocco and Brazil and isolated teeth from Syria suggested a possible presence of M. lemonnieri, although M. hoffmannii also had some presence throughout the province. The team then used computer models to reconstruct the dinosaur's jaw muscles and analyze bite performance. [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. These localities are all shallow ocean deposits, suggesting that juvenile Mosasaurus may still have lived in shallow waters.[100]. As such, it had a streamlined body, an elongated tail ending with a downturn supporting a two-lobed fin, and two pairs of flippers. Separate studies involving multiple Mosasaurus specimens have yielded consistently low 13C levels of tooth enamel, indicating that Mosasaurus fed in more offshore or open waters. The location of the infection may have also interfered with breathing. [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. Its four limbs were shaped into robust paddles to steer the animal underwater. [96], It is likely that Mosasaurus was viviparous (giving live birth) like most modern mammals today. Changing temperatures and an abundance in marine life were characteristic of these localities. First, M. lemonnieri fossils are endemic to Belgium and the Netherlands, which despite the famous discovery of the M. hoffmannii holotype attracted little attention from mosasaur paleontologists. Mosasaurus is a genus of mosasaur, carnivorous, aquatic lizards, somewhat resembling flippered crocodiles, with elongated heavy jaws. This concept was revolutionary at the time and helped support the then-developing ideas of extinction. It is geographically subdivided into two biogeographic provinces that respectively include the northern and southern Tethyan margins. [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. In contrast, M. missouriensis had stomach contents consisting of fish, indicative of a diet specialized in softer prey. 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. "[14] In a 1822 work by James Parkinson, William Daniel Conybeare coined the genus Mosasaurus from the Latin Mosa "Meuse" and the Ancient Greek (saros, "lizard"), all literally meaning "lizard of the Meuse", in reference to the river where the holotype specimen was discovered nearby. On the lower jaw, only one type, the dentary teeth, were present. The 50 ft (15 meter) long Jurassic era marine reptile had a crushing 33,000 lbs (15 metric tons) per square inch bite force, the Natural History Museum of Oslo University said of the new find on . [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. [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. [30] In 1854, Hermann Schlegel proved how Mosasaurus actually had fully aquatic flippers. Spaces within the braincase for the occipital lobe and cerebral hemisphere are narrow and shallow, suggesting such brain parts were relatively small. [67] The tail vertebrae gradually shorten around the center of the tail and lengthen behind the center, suggesting rigidness around the tail center and excellent flexibility behind it. [2], Distribution, ecosystem, and ecological impact. [36] The premaxillary bar,[e] the long portion of the premaxillary bone extending behind the premaxillary teeth, is narrow and constricts near the middle in M. hoffmannii[50] and M. lemonnieri[36] like in typical mosasaurs. The teeth of P. saturator are much more robust than those of M. hoffmannii and were specifically equipped for preying on robust prey like turtles. fossils from Alabama, the Demopolis Chalk, and the Hornerstown Formation. They are also broad, flat, and form a paddle. Paleontologists have done some sort of biomechanical modeling based on teeth we've found, and they calculated the bite force would be about 40,000 pounds per square inch, which is by far the highest bite force ever calculated for any animal, living or extinct. has also been described. [11][42] The cutting edges of Mosasaurus differ by species. [58] Takuya Konishi suggested an alternative cause of this example being head-biting behavior during courtship as seen in modern lizards. hoffmannii, M. missouriensis, M. lemonnieri, and a proposed new species 'M. Even though people say Megalodon has the strongest bite ever with 40,000 psi, its just a myth. Both specimens show signs of deep bacterial infection alongside the fractures; some bacteria may have spread to nearby damaged teeth and caused tooth decay, which may have entered deeper tissue from prior post-traumatic or secondary infections. In M. hoffmannii, the top margin of the dentary is slightly curved upwards;[5] this is also the case with the largest specimens of M. lemonnieri, although more typical skulls of the species have a near-perfectly straight jawline. [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. [50], Paleontologists generally agree that Mosasaurus was likely an active predator of a variety of marine animals. [5][50] In M. hoffmannii, this snout is blunt,[5] while in M. lemonnieri it is pointed. Relationships between mosasaurs and living squamates remain controversial as scientists still fiercely debate on whether the closest living relatives of mosasaurs are monitor lizards or snakes. The fossils were found in association with fossils of Squalicorax, Enchodus, and various ammonites within a uniquely fossil-rich bed at the base of the Hornerstown Formation known as the Main Fossiliferous Layer. [42], Like all mosasaurs, Mosasaurus had four types of teeth, classified based on the jaw bones they were located on. [97][98] Microanatomical studies on bones of juvenile Mosasaurus and related genera have found that their bone structures are comparable to adults. [11][42][61][62] Mosasaurus teeth are large and robust except for those in M. conodon and M. lemonnieri, which instead have more slender teeth. [7][36] Despite being the best anatomically represented species, M. lemonnieri was largely ignored in scientific literature. At most, scientists estimate Mosasaurus's bite force at around 13,000 to 16,000 psi. [11][50] In the hindlimbs, the paddle is supported by four sets of digits. The margin provided a warm-temperate climate with habitats dominated by mosasaurs and sea turtles. Many of the fossils with injuries possibly attributable to intraspecific combat are of juvenile or sub-adult Mosasaurus, leading to the possibility that attacks on smaller, weaker individuals may have been more common. Fossil evidence suggests Mosasaurus inhabited much of the Atlantic Ocean and the seaways adjacent to it. [85] M. sp. [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. Mosasaurs (from Latin Mosa meaning the ' Meuse ', and Greek sauros meaning 'lizard') comprise a group of extinct, large marine reptiles from the Late Cretaceous. Fossil vertebrae from the layer were found with fractures formed after death. Mosasaurus is a genus of large aquatic carnivorous lizard from the Late Cretaceous about 70-66 million years ago. Short of dismembering its prey by the sheer force of its bite, a mosasaur had to swallow whatever it caught whole, much like a modern snake. [52] Mentioning the Penza specimen, Gregory S. Paul estimated in his 2022 book, The Princeton Field Guide to Mesozoic Sea Reptiles, a shorter maximum length for M. hoffmannii of 13 meters (43ft) and a body mass of 5.5 metric tons (6.1 short tons). What constitutes published work", "A new mosasaurine from the Maastrichtian (Upper Cretaceous) phosphates of Morocco and its implications for mosasaurine systematics", "Inferring 'weak spots' in phylogenetic trees: application to mosasauroid nomenclature", "Reassessing Mosasaurini based on a systematic revision of, "Mosasauroid phylogeny under multiple phylogenetic methods provides new insights on the evolution of aquatic adaptations in the group", "Inertial feeding in reptiles: the role of skull mass reduction", "Microanatomical and Histological Features in the Long Bones of Mosasaurine Mosasaurs (Reptilia, Squamata) Implications for Aquatic Adaptation and Growth Rates", "Seasonal reproductive endothermy in tegu lizards", "Late Cretaceous winter sea ice in Antarctica? Poor sense of smell and sea turtles unlikely Mosasaurus was a scavenger it. 70-66 million years ago robust paddles to steer the animal underwater has the bite... 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