As a result, more than fifty different species have been attributed to the genus in the past. hoffmannii. Because soft tissue like muscles do not easily fossilize, reconstruction of the musculature was largely based on the structure of the skull, muscle scarring on the skull, and the musculature in extant monitor lizards. How much bite force does a hyena have? [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. [11] The ilium is rod-like and slender; in M. missouriensis, it is around 1.5 times longer than the femur. [58] Takuya Konishi suggested an alternative cause of this example being head-biting behavior during courtship as seen in modern lizards. [102] In certain areas such as Belgium, other Mosasaurus species like M. lemonnieri were instead the dominant species, where it's occurrences greatly outnumber those of other large mosasaurs. With the impending release of the fourth film in the Jurassic Park series we thought we'd present you with the most ferocious bites in the dinosaur kingdom. [88], Carbon isotope studies on fossils of multiple M. hoffmannii individuals have found extremely low values of 13C, the lowest in all mosasaurs for the largest individuals. Spaces within the braincase for the occipital lobe and cerebral hemisphere are narrow and shallow, suggesting such brain parts were relatively small. hoffmannii had fourteen to sixteen maxillary teeth, fourteen to fifteen dentary teeth, and eight pterygoid teeth;[11][46][50] M. missouriensis had fourteen to fifteen maxillary teeth, fourteen to fifteen dentary teeth, and eight to nine pterygoid teeth;[9][42][64] M. conodon had fourteen to fifteen maxillary teeth, sixteen to seventeen dentary teeth, and eight pterygoid teeth;[11][42] M. lemonnieri had fifteen maxillary teeth, fourteen to seventeen dentary teeth, and eleven to twelve pterygoid teeth;[36][11][42] and M. beaugei had twelve to thirteen maxillary teeth, fourteen to sixteen dentary teeth, and six or more pterygoid teeth. Mosasaurus was a predator possessing excellent vision to compensate for its poor sense of smell, and a high metabolic rate suggesting it was endothermic ("warm-blooded"), an adaptation only found in mosasaurs among squamates. The Deinosuchus and Purussaurus are now extinct and are ancestors of caiman and alligators. At least two species of Mosasaurus have been described, but the true number of species is unknown as remains are often fragmentary and specimens are described in open nomenclature. Mosasaurus fossils have been found in places as diverse as North and South America, Europe, Africa, Western Asia, and Antarctica. The oceanic climate of the Northern Interior Subprovince was likely a cool temperate one, while the Southern Interior Subprovince had warm temperate to subtropical climates. The causes of such infections are uncertain, but records of fused vertebrae in other mosasaurs suggest attacks by sharks and other predators as a possible candidate. An examination of existing historical evidence by Pieters et al., (2012) suggested the most accurate date would be on or around 1780. 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. [9] Five sets of metacarpals and phalanges (finger bones) were encased in and supported the paddles, with the fifth set being shorter and offset from the rest. [50] During the late Maastrichtian, global sea levels dropped, draining the continents of their nutrient-rich seaways and altering circulation and nutrient patterns, and reducing the number of available habitats for Mosasaurus. This level of bone infection would have been tremendously painful and severely hampered the mosasaur's ability to use its jaws. As a tropical area, bony fish such as Enchodus and Stratodus and various sharks were common throughout the southern Tethyan margin. [102], The northern Tethyan margin was located around the paleolatitudes of 3040N, consisting of what is now the European continent, Turkey, and New Jersey. At the time, it was not believed that a species could go extinct, and fossils of animals were often interpreted as some form of an extant species. The layer was likely deposited as a tsunamite, alternatively nicknamed the "Cretaceous cocktail deposit". [7] Russell (1967) wrote that the length of the jaw equalled one tenth of the body length in the species. The skull of Mosasaurus was equipped with robust jaws capable of swinging back and forth and strong muscles capable of powerful bites using dozens of large teeth adapted for cutting prey. This was based on fossils like the M. missouriensis holotype, which indicated an elastic vertebral column that Goldfuss in 1845 saw as evidence of an ability to walk and interpretations of some phalanges as claws. A recently described fossil of the ocean-dwelling beast reveals that its bite was unlike that of any of its relatives, in the water or onshore. [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. The latter rendered Mosasaurus paraphyletic (an unnatural grouping), but Bell (1997) nevertheless recognized Plotosaurus as a distinct genus. Another five species still nominally classified within Mosasaurus are planned to be reassessed in a future study. [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. The long, narrow, and heavy nature of the lower jaws and attachment of tendons at the coronoid process would have allowed quick opening and closing of the mouth with little energy input underwater, which also contributed to the powerful bite force of M. hoffmannii and suggests it would not have needed the strong magnus depressor muscles (jaw-opening muscles) seen in some plesiosaurs. [9] These problems were addressed in Street's 2016 thesis in an updated phylogenetic analysis. Changing temperatures and an abundance in marine life were characteristic of these localities. Extensive amounts of bone reparative tissue were also present, suggesting the infection and subsequent healing process may have progressed for a few months. [125], Known fossils of Mosasaurus have typically been recovered from deposits representing nearshore habitats during the Cretaceous period, with some fossils coming from deeper-water deposits. Scale bar is 50 mm in B and 20 mm in D. C: Alleged "mosasaur bite marks" in body chamber of ammonite (Placenticeras meeki ) (RTMP89.42.36), Bearpaw Formation, Late Cretaceous, St. Mary River . hoffmannii, M. missouriensis, M. conodon, M. lemonnieri, and M. beaugei. 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. Pretty much it. 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. [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. The size of their jaws would have made them predators of smaller sea animals than the megalodon. Who Would Win Mosasaurus Vs Spinosaurus? One such bone is a quadrate (NHMM 003892) which is 150% larger than the average size, which Everhart and colleagues in 2016 reported can be extrapolated to scale an individual around 18 meters (59ft) in length. maximus, M. missouriensis, and M. conodon; by doing so, others like M. lemonnieri, which is one of the most completely known species in the genus, were neglected, which affected phylogenetic results. [7][36] Compared to other mosasaurs, the rib cage of Mosasaurus is unusually deep and forms an almost perfect semicircle, giving it a barrel-shaped chest. [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. [38] Based on this ratio, Grigoriev (2014) used the largest lower jaw attributed to M. hoffmannii (CCMGE 10/2469, also known as the Penza specimen; measuring 171 centimeters (67in) in length) to estimate a maximum length of 17.1 meters (56ft). [50], Paleontologists generally agree that Mosasaurus was likely an active predator of a variety of marine animals. [38][55] He also measured the dimensions of IRSNB 3119 and recorded that the skull constituted approximately one-eleventh of the whole body. The validity of some of these genera is disputed as they are primarily based on isolated teeth. 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. This giant shark is 25 m in length (82 ft) and swims up to 17 m/s (55 ft/s). A new analysis published on Wednesday of fossils of the creature unearthed in 1975 has determined that it deserves to be recognized as a new genus of mosasaur based on skeletal traits including a. [88][126] To account for this, a 2014 study by T. Lynn Harrell Jr. and Alberto Perez-Huerta examined the concentration ratios of neodymium, gadolinium, and ytterbium in M. hoffmannii and Mosasaurus sp. [83][84][85][86], Mosasaurus had relatively large eye sockets[50] with large sclerotic rings occupying much of the sockets' diameter;[36] the latter is correlated with eye size and suggests it had good vision. [10] In M. missouriensis, the bar is robust and does not constrict. [92], In 2006, Schulp and colleagues published a study describing a quadrate of M. hoffmannii with multiple unnatural openings and an estimated 0.5 liters (0.13U.S.gal) of tissue destroyed. This indicates that both Mosasaurus species may have either been habitual deep-divers or repetitive divers. "Anatomy and functional morphology of the largest marine reptile known, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, "Lepidosaurian diversity in the MesozoicPalaeogene: the potential roles of sampling biases and environmental drivers", "A giant mosasaur (Reptilia, Squamata) with an unusually twisted dentition from the Argille Scagliose Complex (late Campanian) of Northern Italy", "Nouvelle note sur l'osteologie des mosasauriens", "Ancient sea monster battle revealed in unusual fossil", "Mosasaurids (Squamata) from the Maastrichtian Phosphates of Morocco: Biodiversity, palaeobiogeography and palaeoecology based on tooth morphoguilds", "New mosasaur material from the Maastrichtian of Angola, with notes on the phylogeny, distribution, and paleoecology of the genus, "A New Addition to the Cretaceous Seaway of North Dakota", "Ontogeny, anatomy and attachment of the dentition in mosasaurs (Mosasauridae: Squamata)", "Soft tissue preservation in a fossil marine lizard with a bilobed tail fin", "Article 8. M. lemmonieri had the most vertebrae in the genus, with up to around forty dorsal vertebrae, twenty-two pygal vertebrae, and ninety caudal vertebrae. Theagarten Lingham-Soliar suggested two reasons for this neglect. [37] At least four other mosasaur genera have been reported in Antarctica, including Plioplatecarpus, the mosasaurines Moanasaurus and Liodon,[85] and Kaikaifilu. This was likely a severe bone infection initiated by septic arthritis, which progressed to the point where a large portion of the quadrate was reduced to abscess. The study found a dietary divide between M. missouriensis and Prognathodon overtoni based on stomach contents. One skull discovered around 1780, which was seized by France during the French Revolutionary Wars for its scientific value, was famously nicknamed the "great animal of Maastricht". [95], Unnatural fusion of tail vertebrae has been documented in Mosasaurus, which occurs when the bones remodel themselves after damage from trauma or disease. [109][110][111], The biogeography of the region has been subdivided into two Interior Subprovinces characterized by different climates and faunal structures, and their borders are separated in modern-day Kansas. [50], Mosasaurus swam using its tail. Megalodon was 63 feet. But especially compared to those in M. lemonnieri, the pterygoid teeth in M. hoffmannii are relatively small, which indicates ratchet feeding was relatively unimportant to its hunting and feeding. Mosasaurus was a common large predator in these oceans and was positioned at the top of the food chain. [11] The disparity is also reflected in the dentary, the lower jawbone,[36] although all species share a long and straight dentary. The first Mosasaurus fossil known to science was discovered in 1764 in a chalk quarry near Maastricht in the Netherlands in the form of a skull, which was initially identified as a whale. [33], The fourth species M. lemonnieri was first detected by Camper Jr. based on fossils from his father's collections, which he discussed with Cuvier during their 1799 correspondence, but Cuvier rejected the idea of another Mosasaurus species. [11][50] The scapula and humerus are fan-shaped and wider than tall. [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. Incorporating the species M. missouriensis, M. conodon, M. maximus, and an indeterminate specimen (UNSM 77040), some of his findings agreed with Russell (1967), such as Mosasaurus descending from an ancestral group containing Clidastes and M. conodon being the most basal of the genus. Purussaurus ~69,000 Newton's. Tyrannosaurus-Rex ~35,000 Newton's. Giganotosaurus ~ 35,500 Newton's. Mapusaurus ~ 31,000 Newton's. The T-Rex has the strongest bite force of any land animal but the megalodon is the king of all bites, on water or land. Mosasaurus gave its name to a group of marine lizards - Mosasaurs. "[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. [108] Extensive drainage from the neighboring continents, Appalachia and Laramidia, brought in vast amounts of sediment. These localities are all shallow ocean deposits, suggesting that juvenile Mosasaurus may still have lived in shallow waters.[100]. saturator. [h][66], One of the most complete Mosasaurus skeletons in terms of vertebral representation (Mosasaurus sp. [9], Mosasaurus may have taught their offspring how to hunt, as supported by a fossil nautiloid Argonautilus catarinae with bite marks from two conspecific mosasaurs, one being from a juvenile and the other being from an adult. They do not exhibit the bone mass increase found in juvenile primitive mosasauroids to support buoyancy associated with a lifestyle in shallow water, implying that Mosasaurus was precocial: they were already efficient swimmers and lived fully functional lifestyles in open water at a very young age, and did not require nursery areas to raise their young. Aside from Zarafasaura in Morocco, plesiosaurs were scarce. 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. In contrast, the frontal and parietal bones, which in modern lizards connect to form a flexible pivot point, overlap in the skull of M. hoffmannii. mokoroa, M. hobetsuensis, M. flemingi, and M. prismaticusto be possibly valid, pending a future formal reassessment. [c][25], The type specimen of M. missouriensis was first described in 1834 by Richard Harlan based on a snout fragment found along the river's Big Bend. Paleontologists believe its diet would have included virtually any animal; it likely preyed on bony fish, sharks, cephalopods, birds, and other marine reptiles including sea turtles and other mosasaurs. [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). This rigid but highly shock-absorbent structure of the cranium likely allowed a powerful bite force. Megalodon is coming into the ring with a brutal bite force of 275,000 kPa. t elliott welch court date. [49][79] Its elongated paddle-like limbs functioned as hydrofoils for maneuvering the animal. It lived from about 82 to 66 million years ago during the Campanian and Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous. [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. [7][9] Third, there was still a lack of comparative studies of the skeletal anatomy of large mosasaurines at the time. [l][7], As the type genus of the family Mosasauridae and the subfamily Mosasaurinae, Mosasaurus is a member of the order Squamata (which comprises lizards and snakes). The third case was determined to be caused by a form of arthritis based on the formation of smooth bridging between fused vertebrae. Of the mosasaurs, Globidens phosphaticus is the characteristic species of the southern province; in the African and Arabian domain, Halisaurus arambourgi and 'Platecarpus ptychodon'[r][102] were also common mosasaurs alongside Globidens. First, the genus was severely underrepresented by incorporating only the three North American species M. hoffmannii/M. [109] Mosasaurus continued to be the dominant genus in the seaway until the end of the Navesinkan Age at the end of the Cretaceous. [102][103][104] The wide range of oceanic climates yielded a large diversity of fauna that coexisted with Mosasaurus. There are two finely ulcerated scratches on the bone callus, which may have developed as part of the healing process. Mosasaurus was smarter, had more fighting experience, was more agile, and longer. Join. [72] The cladogram on the right (Topology B) is modified from Street's 2016 doctoral thesis proposing a revision to the Mosasaurinae, with proposed new taxa and renamings in single quotations. 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. [103] The fossil assemblages throughout these regions suggest a complete faunal turnover when M. missouriensis and M. conodon appeared at 79.5 Ma, indicating that the presence of Mosasaurus in the Western Interior Seaway had a profound impact on the restructuring of marine ecosystems. The Mosasaurus had 250 teeth, and scientists estimate its bite force at around 13,000 to 16,000 psi. A lion can exert 600 psi, and jaguar can exert 2000 psi. 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 . Another explanation suggests the Main Fossiliferous Layer is a Maastrichtian time-averaged remani deposit, which means it originated from a Cretaceous deposit with winnowed low-sediment conditions. [61] Lingham-Soliar (1995) suggested that Mosasaurus had a rather "savage" feeding behavior as demonstrated by large tooth marks on scutes of the giant sea turtle Allopleuron hoffmanni and fossils of re-healed fractured jaws in M. This distribution encompassed a wide range of oceanic climates including tropical, subtropical, temperate, and subpolar climates. Previous studies demonstrated that ratios of these three elements can act as a proxy for relative ocean depth of a fossil during early diagenesis without interference from biological processes, with each of the three elements signifying either shallow, deep, or fresh waters. On the upper jaw, there were three types: the premaxillary teeth, maxillary teeth, and pterygoid teeth. Extensive amounts of bony callus almost overgrowing the tooth socket are present around the fracture along with various osteolytic cavities, abscess canals, damages to the trigeminal nerve, and inflamed erosions signifying severe bacterial infection. [q] Two of these cases displayed irregular surface deformities around the fusion site caused by drainage of the vertebral sinuses, which is indicative of a bone infection. [7], Conrad uniquely used only M. hoffmannii and M. lemonnieri in his 2008 phylogenetic analysis, which recovered M. hoffmannii as basal to a multitude of descendant clades containing (in order of most to least basal) Globidens, M. lemonnieri, Goronyosaurus, and Plotosaurus. [80] Mosasaurus was likely endothermic and maintained a constant body temperature independent of the external environment. The two mosasaurs Mosasaurus and Prognathodon appear to have been the dominant taxa, being widespread and ecologically diversified throughout the seaway. Unfortunately for Mosasaurus, few animals match Megalodon when it comes to sheer bite force. The earliest fossils of Mosasaurus known to science were found as skulls in a chalk quarry near the Dutch city of Maastricht in the late 18th century, which were initially thought to have been the bones of crocodiles or whales. Several fossils document deliberate attacks on Mosasaurus individuals by members of the same species. 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