Fossils of giant sea lizard that ruled the oceans 66 million years ago discovered
Published:13 Sep.2022 Source:ScienceDaily
Researchers have discovered a huge new mosasaur from Morocco, named Thalassotitan atrox, which filled the apex predator niche. With massive jaws and teeth like those of killer whales, Thalassotitan hunted other marine reptiles -- plesiosaurs, sea turtles, and other mosasaurs.
Mosasaurs weren't dinosaurs, but enormous marine lizards growing up to 12 metres (40 feet) in length. They were distant relatives of modern iguanas and monitor lizards.Mosasaurs looked like a Komodo dragon with flippers instead of legs, and a shark-like tail fin. Mosasaurs became larger and more specialised in the last 25 million years of the Cretaceous, taking niches once filled by marine reptiles like plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs. Some evolved to eat small prey like fish and squid. Others crushed ammonites and clams. The new mosasaur, named Thalassotitan atrox, evolved to prey on all the other marine reptiles.
The remains of the new species were dug up in Morocco, about an hour outside Casablanca. Thalassotitan, had an enormous skull measuring 1.4 metres (5 feet long), and grew to nearly 30 feet (9 metres) long, the size of a killer whale. Thalassotitan was an apex predator, sitting at the top of the food chain. The giant mosasaur occupied the same ecological niche as today's killer whales and great white sharks.