Real mosasaurus

This Specimen has been sold. This is a very special and awe inspiring fossil, a jaw section yes, real mosasaurus, a real one from one of the most fearsome predators to ever inhabit our oceans, a Mosasaur.

Being the size of a great white shark, the Wakayama Soryu Megapterygius wakayamaensis would undoubtedly make an eye-catching first impression on anyone. Takuya Konishi, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati, spearheaded the task of classifying the mosasaur and chronicling its prehistoric rule. Konishi and a group of international co-authors recently published a description of the Wakayama Soryu in the Journal of Systematic Paleontology. As he was scouring the river for ammonite fossils, a dark bone embedded in sandstone caught his eye. An examination of the bone revealed it to be a vertebra belonging to a nearly complete mosasaur skeleton. A five-year removal process followed, in which researchers separated the sandstone from the fossils. According to Konishi, it ended up being the most complete skeleton of a mosasaur ever found in Japan or the northwestern Pacific.

Real mosasaurus

A Feb. A frame-by-frame video then shows a large creature moving past an underwater camera. Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks. This footage was published by the official Jurassic World YouTube account in as part of a promotional campaign. Mosasaurs refer to a group of large, carnivorous marine lizards that lived during the age of the dinosaurs, according to the Smithsonian. The video depicts a Mosasaurus — a large mosasaur that is thought to be related to whales and dolphins. It isn't real footage, though. Instead, the clip was part of a promotional video created by the Jurassic World franchise. The video advertises a fictitious dinosaur-tracking website created by the company. Fact check: Ample evidence fossil fuels and dinosaurs are real. There is no evidence to suggest that mosasaurs are still living today, said Darrin Pagnac , a geology professor and paleontologist at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Thank you for supporting our journalism.

Jagt; Dirk Cornelissen; Eric W.

It lived from about 82 to 66 million years ago during the Campanian and Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous. The genus was one of the first Mesozoic marine reptiles known to science—the first fossils of Mosasaurus were found as skulls in a chalk quarry near the Dutch city of Maastricht in the late 18th century, and were initially thought to be crocodiles or whales. One skull discovered around was famously nicknamed the "great animal of Maastricht". In , naturalist Georges Cuvier concluded that it belonged to a giant marine lizard with similarities to monitor lizards but otherwise unlike any known living animal. This concept was revolutionary at the time and helped support the then-developing ideas of extinction. Cuvier did not designate a scientific name for the animal; this was done by William Daniel Conybeare in when he named it Mosasaurus in reference to its origin in fossil deposits near the Meuse River.

Mosasaurus facts and pictures. Discover a fearsome mosasaur from the Late Cretaceous, made famous by its appearance in the film Jurassic World Mosasaurus is an extinct aquatic reptile that lived at the very end of the Cretaceous Period, from around Mosasaurus was not a dinosaur; like other mosasaurs, it was descended from lizards that originally lived on land. Because of this, Mosasaurus belongs to the reptilian order Squamata, which contains all lizards and snakes. Mosasaurus is not a species; it is a genus. A genus is a group of closely related animals.

Real mosasaurus

Their first fossil remains were discovered in a limestone quarry at Maastricht on the Meuse in They belong to the order Squamata , which includes lizards and snakes. During the last 20 million years of the Cretaceous period Turonian — Maastrichtian ages , with the extinction of the ichthyosaurs and pliosaurs , mosasaurids became the dominant marine predators. They themselves became extinct as a result of the K-Pg event at the end of the Cretaceous period, about 66 million years ago. Mosasaurs breathed air, were powerful swimmers, and were well-adapted to living in the warm, shallow inland seas prevalent during the Late Cretaceous period. Mosasaurs were so well adapted to this environment that they most likely gave birth to live young , rather than returning to the shore to lay eggs as sea turtles do.

Garfield gets real sheila

Traditional interpretations have estimated the maximum length of the largest species, M. Kemp; Stuart A. It seems like at least some mosasaurs, perhaps including Mosasaurus itself, were counter-shaded Lindgren et al. Some species, like the round-toothed Globidens , probably specialized in feeding on mollusks, using their blunt teeth to crack the shells of their prey. There is fossil evidence that Mosasaurus engaged in aggressive and lethal combat with others of its kind. Archived from the original on June 2, These and other features support a large and powerful paddle-like fluke in Mosasaurus. 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. Carbon isotope studies on fossils of multiple M. 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. PMC Fernandez; Marianella Talevi; Juan M. Harington This concept was revolutionary at the time and helped support the then-developing ideas of extinction. Metzger; Anthony Herrel

Mosasaurus was a ferocious predator in the ancient oceans of the Cretaceous period While dinosaurs dominated the land, Mosasaurus used its long tail and stumpy, paddle-like limbs to cruise through the water, devouring all kinds of prey with its massive jaws and sharp, cone-shaped teeth.

Cretaceous Reptiles of the United States. Snow, F. Terry Jr. Polcyn View our privacy policy. Fossil vertebrae from the layer were found with fractures formed after death. While in the past derived mosasaurs were depicted as akin to giant flippered sea snakes , it is now understood that they were more similar in build to other large marine vertebrates such as ichthyosaurs, marine crocodylomorphs , and archaeocete whales through convergent evolution. Life restoration of M. Incorporating the species M. Barrett Toggle limited content width. 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. Jagt; A. Mosasaurus swam using its tail. Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology.