Mosasaurs are group of extent aquatic (marine) reptile that feed on fish, turtles, sea urchins, shell fish etc. Mosasaurs are reptile, this shows that they breathe in air and this means they have to come to the surface of water to breathe air and they also give birth in water, what brings Mosasaurs inside water hasn’t been confirmed since they are reptile and research makes it clears to us that the ancestors lived on ground. They are powerful swimmers that has long snake like bodies that are streamlined and also possess four limbs and 2 jaws. They swam with the snail like motion using their tail as a propeller and rudder and the flippers as stabilizers.
When I said they are snake like bodies, this means they are similar to snake. Their jaws could be expanded and this help in swallowing large prey at a whole and also like a snake they have two sets of teeth in the upper jaws, the teeth serve to hold prey that are struggling to safe in their hand.
| TAXONOMY | NAME OF GROUP |
|---|---|
| Class | Reptilian |
| Order | Squamata |
| Super family | Mosasauroidea |
| Family | Mosasauridae |
| Subfamilies | Halisaurine, Mosasaurinae, Plioplate, Carpinae and Tylosaurinae |
EVOLUTION
Mosasaurs evolution occurred 96million years ago and they became the dominant marine predators which are sometimes called the T.Rex of the sea. The smallest Mosasaurs was about 10feets while the largest grew was up to 57feets, do you now see that the comparison them and tallest man in the world “Sultan Kosen” is 8feets, this shows man is nowhere to be found when relating the height or length together. Mosasaurs are reptiles with overlapping scales, like snake, lizard and Sphenodonts such as the “Tuatara”
Mosasaurs that reach 50feets can weigh up to 14tons which is 14,000Kg, the skeleton measures about 29feet long and this is on display at the Stermberg Museum of Natural History in Kansas and the fossil belong to Halisaurus Arambourgi
They appear to have first evolved during the Maastricht age of cretaceous, following the extinction of the Ichthyosaurs and they all died out during the mass extinction of the end at the end period. The first Mosasaurs fossil to be discovered took place in 1780 in a quarry near the city of Maastricht in Holland and they were not given name then until a name was now given to it and it’s still the current name we are calling it i.e. “Mosasaurs” which was coined from two words Meuse and Saur. Meuse is the name of a river where the fossil was discovered “Meuse River” while Saur means Lizard in Greek language.
In 1885, there is a discovery of the gigantic tylosaurine Hainosaurus bernardi DOLLO in Belgium, the skeleton of this particular Mosasaur was found intact
After the discovery of the first Mosasaurs fossil, the following countries also discover other fossils of the same kind;
| No | Countries |
|---|---|
| 1 | Australia |
| 2 | Canada |
| 3 | Mexico |
| 4 | Denmark |
| 5 | United state |
| 6 | Sweden |
| 7 | New Zealand |
| 8 | Peru |
| 9 | Africa(Near the coast of Antarctica) |
Mosasaurs skeleton was first put on public display in Texas centennial in 1936 while the mounted and reconstructed skeleton is currently on display at the Texas memorial Museum.
GROSS ANATOMY OF MOSASAURS
Mosasaurs posses long conical (sharp) teeth which is use for preying other marine creatures but they don’t use the teeth to chew, they have a set of teeth on the pterygoid bones in the roof of their mouth which are used in eating of slippery prey. Their jaw is divided into the upper and the lower jaw and the lower jaw is loosely joined to their skull with moveable joints on each side immediately after the teeth, the joint permit them to swallow large prey.
As a agriculturalist, I will be bringing another animals to you guys, Please upvote, comment and resteem
Source: My Steemit handle