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. conodon. [7] A particular near-complete skeleton of M. missouriensis is reportedly measured at 6.5 meters (21ft) in total length with a skull approaching 1 meter (3.3ft) in length. [42] One indeterminate specimen of Mosasaurus similar to M. conodon from the Pembina Gorge State Recreation Area in North Dakota was found to have an unusual count of sixteen pterygoid teeth, far greater than in known species. Mosasaurus (/mozsrs/; "lizard of the Meuse River") is the type genus (defining example) of the mosasaurs, an extinct group of aquatic squamate reptiles. Our bite force as humans averages just a bit more than 160 pounds per square inch. (2014) estimated that M. missouriensis may have measured up to 89 meters (2630ft) in length. The swimming style was likely sub-carangiform, which is exemplified today by mackerels. This giant shark is 25 m in length (82 ft) and swims up to 17 m/s (55 ft/s). They are also broad, flat, and form a paddle. Second, the species was overshadowed by the more famous and history-rich type species. hoffmannii, M. missouriensis, M. conodon, M. lemonnieri, and M. beaugei. [29] The rest of the skull had been discovered earlier by a fur-trapper, and it eventually came under the possession of prince Maximilian of Weid-Neuwied between 1832 and 1834. The mosasaurus was a formidable predator in the late Cretaceous period. [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). [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. These cranial structures are united by strong interlocking sutures formed to resist compression and shear forces caused by a downward thrust of the lower jaw muscles or an upward thrust of prey. 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. 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. Mosasaurs with lower 13C values tended to occupy higher trophic levels, and one factor for this was dietary: a diet of prey rich in lipids such as sea turtles and other large marine reptiles can lower 13C values. Megalodon is coming into the ring with a brutal bite force of 275,000 kPa. 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. Previous bite force estimates for juvenile T. rexes based on reconstruction of the jaw muscles or from mathematically scaling down the bite force of adult T. rexes were considerably less, about 4,000 newtons. Mosasaurus was 40 feet. hoffmannii, M. missouriensis, M. lemonnieri, and a proposed new species 'M. [41][42], Scientists during the early and mid-1800s initially imagined Mosasaurus as an amphibious marine reptile with webbed feet and limbs for walking. It likely preferred to hunt in open water near the surface. [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. These localities include the Midwest and East Coast of the United States, Canada, Europe, Turkey, Russia, the Levant, the African coastline from Morocco[101] to South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, and Antarctica. [22] He coined the specific epithet and initially identified it as a species of Ichthyosaurus[28] but later as an amphibian. That title goes to the Dunkleosteus, the real king of the sea when it comes to biting, his jaw could exert aproximately 80,000 psi, which doubles Megalodon and it is because Dunkleosteus' head was specially designed for compressing, its teeth had a special razor design, and it wasnt entirely teeth . [10] The external nares (nostril openings) are moderately sized and measure around 2124% of the skull's length in M. hoffmannii. Cuvier did not designate a scientific name for the new animal, and this was done by William Daniel Conybeare in 1822 when he named it Mosasaurus in reference to its origin in fossil deposits near the Meuse River. saturator. The bladed dentition of this 400-million-year-old extinct fish focused the bite force into a small area, the fang tip, at an. [53] Polcyn et al. [22] Richard Ellis speculated in 2003 that this may have been the earliest discovery of the second species M. missouriensis,[23] although competing speculations exist. [35][33] Further mining of the quarry in subsequent years uncovered many additional well-preserved fossils, including multiple partial skeletons which collectively represented nearly the entire skeleton of the species. [11] The ilium is rod-like and slender; in M. missouriensis, it is around 1.5 times longer than the femur. [36] Above the gum line in both jaws, a single row of small pits known as foramina are lined parallel to the jawline; they are used to hold the terminal branches of jaw nerves. 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. 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. Mosasaurus is a genus of large aquatic carnivorous lizard from the Late Cretaceous about 70-66 million years ago. It is geographically subdivided into two biogeographic provinces that respectively include the northern and southern Tethyan margins. [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. [11] The disparity is also reflected in the dentary, the lower jawbone,[36] although all species share a long and straight dentary. [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 bite force of Mosasaurus has been estimated to be between 13,000 and 16,000 pounds per square inch (psi). [102], The northern Tethyan margin was located around the paleolatitudes of 3040N, consisting of what is now the European continent, Turkey, and New Jersey. 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. [112][114] During the Navesinkan Age, Mosasaurus dominated the whole region, accounting for around two-thirds of all mosasaur diversity with Plioplatecarpus and Prognathodon sharing the remaining third. "The only plausible attacker with sufficient bite force to penetrate the cortical bone to such an extent is another mosasaur," Bastiaans and his team concluded, identifying the wound as a "tooth strike lesion." The infection ended up being worse than the bite. 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. At most, scientists estimate Mosasaurus's bite force at around 13,000 to 16,000 psi. [j][5] Street & Caldwell (2017) was derived from Street's 2016 doctoral thesis, which contained a phylogenetic study proposing the constraining of Mosasaurus into four speciesM. [21][b] Cuvier later designated the second skull as the new species' holotype (defining example). [h][66], One of the most complete Mosasaurus skeletons in terms of vertebral representation (Mosasaurus sp. There are two finely ulcerated scratches on the bone callus, which may have developed as part of the healing process. The estimated bite force of megalodons is between 108,514 and 182,201 Newtons (24,395 and 40,960 pound-force), according to the Natural History Museum. hoffmannii. [42], Like all mosasaurs, Mosasaurus had four types of teeth, classified based on the jaw bones they were located on. [50] It is unlikely Mosasaurus was a scavenger as it had a poor sense of smell. [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. The third case was determined to be caused by a form of arthritis based on the formation of smooth bridging between fused vertebrae. [31] In 1966, it was reidentified as a species of Mosasaurus. As befitting mammals that can eat, chew and digest solid bone, spotted hyenas are equipped with massive skulls, disproportionately large trunks and forelimbs, and powerful bites that can rip through carcasses with up to 1,000 pounds of force per square inch. 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. [51] In 2014, Federico Fanti and colleagues alternatively argued that the total length of M. hoffmannii was more likely closer to seven times the length of the skull, which was based on a near-complete skeleton of the related species Prognathodon overtoni. (2017). The femur itself is about twice as long as it is wide and ends at the distal side in a pair of distinct articular facets (of which one connects to the ilium and the other to the paddle bones) that meet at an angle of approximately 120. A lion can exert 600 psi, and jaguar can exert 2000 psi. Like most advanced mosasaurs, the tail bends slightly downwards as it approached the center, but this bend is offset from the dorsal plane at a small degree. This fish was much longer than the length of the mosasaur's skull, which measured 66 centimeters (26in) in length, confirming that M. missouriensis consumed prey larger than its head by dismembering and consuming bits at a time. This indicates that both Mosasaurus species may have either been habitual deep-divers or repetitive divers. [53] Based on personal observations of various unpublished fossils from Morocco, Nathalie Bardet estimated that M. beaugei grew to a total length of 810 meters (2633ft), their skulls typically measuring around 1 meter (3.3ft) in length,[59] with a body mass of around 1.5 metric tons (1.7 short tons) per Paul (2022). The location of the infection may have also interfered with breathing. [7] Russell (1967) wrote that the length of the jaw equalled one tenth of the body length in the species. A-Z-Animals.com Five Cool Facts About T-Rex vs Spinosaurus T-Rex had one of the most powerful bites of any animal that has ever lived, with an estimated bite force of over 12,000 pounds per square inch. 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%. [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.
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