In Depth Fossil teeth of Igdamanosaurus were originally described as a species of the mosasaur Globidens by Zdansky in 1935, a later study of a partial jaw from Niger by Lingham-Soliar in 1991 saw the remains raised to the status of a distinct genus. Additionally Igdamanosaurus is now classed within the Plioplatecarpinae due to the … Read more
In Depth Dollosaurus is a genus of mosasaur that swam and hunted in the seas of Europe during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous. Dollosaurus was named after Louis Dollo, a Belgian palaeontologist who is remembered for his work studying mosasaurs. Further Reading - Dental and vertebral morphology of the enigmatic mosasaur Dollosaurus (Reptilia, … Read more
In Depth Dallasaurus was a fascinating discovery, especially for lovers of the marine reptiles that swam the Mesozoic oceans, more particularly the mosasaurs of the Cretaceous. The skeletal features of Dallasaurus have helped to further cement the theory that the mosasaurs evolved from terrestrial (land living) reptiles like monitor lizards during the early/mid Cretaceous. A … Read more
In Depth A kind of mosasaur known from North Africa, the species name of E. heterodontus means different-toothed and is in reference to the different kinds of teeth that are present in the jaws of known Eremiasaurus specimens. This is taken to indicate that Eremiasaurus may have been a generalist carnivore that was not especially … Read more
In Depth When Carinodens was first named it was as Compressidens, however it was later realised that this name had already been used to name a genus of mollusc. Because a name cannot be used more than once, a new name had to be chosen and so Carinodens came into being. Carinodens means ‘keel teeth’, … Read more
In Depth Halisaurus was first named all the way back in 1869 during a period in American paleontological history today known as the ‘bone wars’. However a year later Othniel Charles Marsh, the person who named Halisaurus, became aware of a genus of fish called Halosaurus and mistakenly came to the conclusion that Halisaurus was … Read more
In Depth A not very well known genus of mosasaur, Ectenosaurus has still helped us to confirm that older ideas about how mosasaurs swam are simply wrong. Over a hundred years ago mosasaurs were thought to have been close relatives of snakes (again an idea that is now seen as wrong), and like them the … Read more
In Depth Tethysaurus is a primitive (basal) mosasaur that is considered to be related to Russelosaurus from North America and Yaguarasaurus from South America. Like these other two mosasaurs, Tethysaurus has a mixture of both primitive and advanced features that make it a primitive relative to other later mosasaur groups, although not as primitive as … Read more
In Depth In 1937 a fossil collector named Allan Bennison discovered mosasaur fossils in California’s Mount Diablo Range. These fossils were first described by Charles Camp in 1942 and published as Kolposaurus; however this name is actually preoccupied as a synonym for Nothosaurus, hence the naming revision to Plotosaurus in 1951. The original fossils were … Read more
In Depth During the Cretaceous period much of Modern day Manitoba would have been submerged under the Western Interior Seaway, which is how the fossils of the mosasaur Latoplatecarpus made it so far inland. After the original material was prepared and described, some further remains that were once attributed to Plioplatecarpus were reassigned to Latoplatecarpus … Read more