Latoplatecarpus
Name:
Latoplatecarpus
(Wide flat wrist).
Phonetic: Lat-oh-plat-ee-kar-pus.
Named By: Takuya Konishi & Michael W.
Caldwell - 2011.
Synonyms: Plioplatecarpus nichollsae.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Squamata,
Mosasauridae, Plioplatecarpini.
Species: L. willistoni (type),
L.
nichollsae.
Diet: Carnivore/Piscivore.
Size: Uncertain.
Known locations: Canada, Manitoba, Pembina
Mountain - Pierre Shale.
Time period: Campanian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Almost complete skull and
mandible (lower jaw) as well as partial post cranial remains.
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
to create a second species L. nichollsae
(originally referred as
Plioplatecarpus nichollsae). Further study has
also indicated that
other material that has been dubiously referred to the genus
Platecarpus
as the species P. somenensis may actually belong
with
Latoplatecarpus nichollsae.
As
a plioplatecarpine mosasaur, Latoplatecarpus had
a short snout and
powerful body for swimming, and as such it may have focused upon
smaller prey like fish and possibly also cephalopods, while larger
mosasaurs like Tylosaurus
were dedicated to hunting large prey like
other marine reptiles. The name Latoplatecarpus
is in reference to
the wide shape and construction of the front flippers that would have
been used for steering as well as keeping level while swimming. Their
developed shape suggests that Latoplatecarpus may
have been both fast
and agile in its swimming ability.
Further reading
- A new species of mosasaur
(Squamata: Mosasauridae) from the Pierre Shale (lower Campanian) of
Manitoba. - Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 44 (5): 593–606. - R.
S. Cuthbertson, J. C. Mallon, N. E. Campione & R. B. Holmes - 2007.
-
Two new plioplatecarpine (Squamata, Mosasauridae) genera from the Upper
Cretaceous of North America, and a global phylogenetic analysis of
plioplatecarpines. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 31(4):754-783.
- T. Konishi & M. W. Caldwell - 2011.
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